Gorka looking good in Dauphiné

Gorka Verdugo ascended to ninth place overall in the Dauphiné today after a chaotic stage. The 191-kilometre trek from Evian-les-Bains to Saint-Laurent-du-Pont was marred by a bad crash wiping out a number of riders going into the Miribel climb, the summit of which was situated only six kilometres from the line. Menchov got caught up in that crash and had lost a minute and eleven seconds by stage's end. Gorka, who was very active on that particular climb, along with Egoi, Iñaki and Samu all came in with the first group and thus kept Samu's hopes of a high overall placing alive. Jorge and Romain came in with the Menchov group, while Alan and Iván both came in 4:22 down.