{"id":20135,"date":"2013-06-03T21:29:33","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T19:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/dauphine-start-concerns-de-gendt\/"},"modified":"2013-06-03T21:29:33","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T19:29:33","slug":"dauphine-start-concerns-de-gendt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/dauphine-start-concerns-de-gendt\/","title":{"rendered":"Dauphin\u00e9 start concerns De Gendt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t \"Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas de Gendt (Photo credit: cas_ks)<\/p>\n

Thomas De Gendt<\/a> aimed to get his Tour de France<\/a> preparation on track with a high overall finish when he entered the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9, but the Belgian suffered a worrying setback when he lost 14 minutes on stage one to Champ\u00e9ry.<\/p>\n

De Gendt struggled as soon as the road went uphill on Sunday\u2019s stage and he was distanced by the main peloton on the climb of Morgin. The Belgian, who finished third overall at last year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia, came home in 138th place, almost a quarter of an hour down on stage winner David Veilleux<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something not right, my heart rate was too high,\u201d De Gendt told Sporza. \u201cI was trying to ride in the peloton when I got dropped by 160 or 170 riders and I realised that I couldn\u2019t do any more.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart rate was way too high and I don\u2019t know where that comes from,\u201d De Gendt said. \u201cI was at 170 beats per minute very quickly and on that long climb I peaked at 180 beats per minute even though I didn\u2019t go very deep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the Dauphin\u00e9, De Gendt had spoken optimistically of aiming for a top five finish overall and declared himself pleased with the form he had shown at a recent Vacansoleil team time trial training camp. He believes his travails in the Dauphin\u00e9 opener might be explicable by illness. \u2013 Cycling News<\/a><\/p>\n

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