Great win for Dani Moreno in the second stage of the French race “Criterium du Dauphinè”: Katusha Team’s Spanish rider was the fastest in the sprint of Saint Felicien finishing line, after 160 hard kilometers. The stage was characterized by a surprising early attack of one of the great favourites for the final victory: Bradley Wiggins (Sky), together with two of his teammates, Boasson Hagen and Rogers. Obviously, some other rivals for the general classification and great names went away with him: Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale), Yaroslav Popovych (RadioShack-Nissan), Remi Pauriol (FDJ), Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Bram Tankink (Rabobank) and Maxime Mederel (Saur Sojasun). The group, leaded by Katusha too, didn’t leave any space to this dangerous escape, so the blitz was neutralized after a short time. The good breakaway proved to be the other right after that one, when four riders managed to leave the main group: Christophe Kern (Europcar), Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale), Cayetano Sarmiento (Liquigas-Cannondale) and David Moncoutiè (Cofidis). In the final part of the stage Anthony Roux (FDJ) tried the counter-attack and reached the other riders ahead, but the main group was able to close the gap before the last uphill, a 4th category one, the sixth categorized climbing of the day after 3 second, 1 third and 1 fourth category uphills. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) is the first to start the rush, but his try came too early: Dani Moreno answered back with an impressive, powerful sprint and took an easy victory, defeating Julien Simon (Saur Sojasun) and Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan), respectevely second and third. 
“I’m very happy with this victory – said the Spanish rider – it’s one the best of my career together with the stage in ‘Vuelta a Espana’ and ‘Giro del Piemonte’. Some said it was a surprising win for me, but I think I was one of the favourites instead: I’m in a good shape after ‘Giro d’Italia’, during this season I’ve already taken two victories and the route was very suitable to my characteristics. In fact, the last climbing before the finishing line was perfect for me: I started my rush with 300 meters to go, and I think it was really the right moment. In the end the gap I had in front of the second was quite a lot, but actually the stage was very nervous, and the group kept a really fast pace, so it wasn’t easy at all”.