Team Sky's Peter Kennaugh has said that his victory on the opening stage of the 67th Criterium du Dauphine provided an awesome feeling.
Kennaugh who broke away with 1.9kms left of the first stage said to the Team Sky Press Office: "It was an awesome feeling.
"Having a few little digs on the climb was nice to do. I spend a lot of time working for other guys so it was just nice to have that opportunity. It wasn't really planned or anything - it was just how the race panned out. As long as I didn't take any of the threats to GC with me it was all good.
"It just worked out perfectly. I always knew that once we got that gap and the bunch wasn't coming back super fast that we had a chance. Then I just planned to attack within the last 3km, fully committed to that and pulled it off luckily.
"[Winning in] Austria was good as it was my first kind of real stage race, and to win in the stripes there. But I think this could potentially be my last race in the jersey. Just to win races in consecutive years as well is nice, and then also the fact that I get to wear the yellow jersey at the Dauphine. I didn't realise to be honest until I almost got onto the podium. It's awesome to be able to wear the jersey at such a prestigious race. It's incredible.
"Obviously I had an injury and three weeks totally off the bike back in March. I've literally spent the last seven weeks on the road so it's just nice to have it all finally pay off. It was a big commitment, not seeing any family or spending any time at home. I did the Ardennes, three days in Nice, and then Romandie which I didn't finish. That was quite hard on the head but despite that I was still doing five-hour training days on my own out there while the guys were racing. Those kind of days on your own in the rain are the days where your commitment and sacrifices really count I suppose. Then California was nice and something different. I started to feel like I was going okay there, even though I was only at about 65 or 70% of what I knew I could do. Once I got over the jetlag in Tenerife I finished the camp quite well.
"Then I was able to go home to the Isle of Man for the first time in a while to just have a bit of down-time. It's nice to be rewarded for something after those darker, harder days when nothing really feels like it's going right. You sometimes question what you're doing it for, then when you get days like this it makes up for it. I'm over the moon."