Chris Froome was returning to the race in which he suffered a serious accident last year. AFP/Anne-Christine POUJOULAT
Belgian Van Aert, who won the Milan-Sanremo on Sunday, beat Impey in second and Bernal in third in a sprint finish to the north of Saint-Etienne.
This season’s Dauphine has been shortened and moved due to the coronavirus pandemic with Chris Froome, who finished in 86th place 5min 23sec behind Van Aert, returning to a race which almost finished the four-time Tour de France winner’s career last year when he had a serious accident.
“Apparently I have good legs. I came to the hotel really tired yesterday and the team still did a perfect job for me today,” Van Aert told France Televisions.
Thursday’s 135-kilometre second stage heads from the town of Vienne up to the Col de Porte and includes three steep climbs.
The race is a key warmup for this season’s Tour de France which has been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It will start on August 29.
Stage result:
1. Wout Van Aert (BEL/JUM) 5hr 27min 42sec, 2. Daryl Impey (RSA/MIT) same time, 3. Egan Bernal (COL/INE) s.t, 4. Alejandro Valverde (ESP/MOV) s.t, 5. Tadej Pogacar (SLO/UAE) s.t, 6. Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ/ASY) s.t, 7. Sergio Higuita (COL/EF1) s.t, 8. Benoit Cosnefroy (FRA/ALM) s.t, 9. Primoz Roglic (SLO/JUM) s.t, 10. Guillaume Martin (FRA/COF) s.t
Selected others
18. Romain Bardet (FRA/ALM) s.t, 19. Thibaut Pinot (FRA/FDJ) s.t, 22. Tom Dumoulin (NED/JUM) s.t, 23. Steven Kruijswijk (NED/JUM) s.t, 26. Geraint Thomas (GBR/INE) s.t, 86. Chris Froome (GBR/INE) 5 mins 33 sec