Crashes and injury have made the last 12 months a constant fight for Jurgen Van Den Broeck and going into this year's Criterium du Dauphiné, he wasn't even sure that he would get selected for the Tour de France. Today he did a fantastic long-distance attack to move himself into third overall and can now go into his big objective with peace in mind.

Jurgen Van den Broeck finished third in the overall classification of the Critérium du Dauphiné at 35 seconds of Andrew Talansky, who snatched the victory from Alberto Contador. The exciting final stage with finish in Courchevel made several changes to GC.

It all started with a breakaway set up by 23 riders, with among other Jurgen Van den Broeck and Tony Gallopin. In the stage classification Van den Broeck got fifth.

The final stage from Megève to Courchevel was 131.5 kilometers long and contained four climbs, the Côte de Domancy (2nd category) to begin with. After the official top it kept going uphill for a while and it was in that part of the course a front group of 23 was formed with Jurgen Van den Broeck and Tony Gallopin. Apart from Van den Broeck other GC riders were also part of the breakaway, like Andrew Talansky and Adam Yates.

Alberto Contador, whose leader's jersey was endangered, attacked on the penultimate climb and left among other Chris Froome behind. In front eight early escapees were left at the top, with Van den Broeck. Together they started the final climb of the day to Courchevel: 5.9 kilometers long and 6.2% average gradient.

Mikel Nieve attacked first and conquered the stage win. Talansky and Van den Broeck arrived together nine seconds later as fourth and fifth respectively.

The American took over the yellow jersey from Contador who became tenth, but couldn't save his overall win and eventually finished second. After a strong week Jurgen Van den Broeck could step on the podium of the Critérium du Dauphiné as third.

"Before the start of the Dauphiné I had hoped I could show I was competitive," Van Den Broeck says. "That I'm on the podium is a marvellous result. I was fifth this morning. The goal was first of all to maintain that place and gain one place if possible.

"The race was hectic today and I was in the perfect position when the breakaway was formed. I decided to jump along. I had lots of support from Tony Gallopin. For Talansky, who had teammate Hesjedal with him, it was also important to take as much time as possible, so between us there was a good cooperation. For me the GC was the priority, at the end I could look at the stage win. I mainly wanted to fight for a podium place.

"This Dauphiné has been very successful. During my training period before this race I knew I was good, but that needed to be confirmed in competition. I immediately got that confirmation in the first two days.

"The team worked really well here and there was a pleasant atmosphere. Everyone knew what to do, also today this was proven. It was nice to battle in front here in the Dauphiné and to feel I'm on the level I need to be.

"Now I'm going on a training camp to the Sierra Nevada. Of course the Belgian Championship is planned at the end of the month (29th of June) and then the team heads off to the Tour. This Dauphiné has set my mind to rest in the run-up to that Tour de France."
 
"In the opening time trial we immediately noticed that Jurgen Van den Broeck was good," sports director Herman Frison said. "He set a strong time, the place was less important. In the first mountain stage, on Monday, he proved to be able to follow the best. That was a relief; he was doing really well. The next days he continued that way.

"Today he got in a breakaway with among other Talansky. Gallopin was very strong and did lots of work together with riders of AG2R and Garmin. It was a great stage today. This podium place was above the expectations.
 
"After all the hard work of Van den Broeck to come back after his crash in the Tour of last year this result is overwhelming. It gives him and the whole team confidence for the Tour.

"The entire team rode well here in the Dauphiné. We collected several nice stage results. Boeckmans unfortunately just missed the victory last Tuesday, the difference with Arndt was very small. Almost every day the team was represented in the break and we can be satisfied with the performance of the whole team."