Wout van Aert maintained his incredible return from the coronavirus pandemic with another victory on stage one of the Criterium du Dauphine.

The Dutch sensation powered up the final incline in dominant fashion to take the overall race lead ahead of South Africa’s Daryl Impey and 2019 Tour de France champion Egan Bernal.

Van Aert’s victory is his third in quick succession after wins at Strade Bianche and just last weekend at Milan San-Remo, the first of cycling’s major monuments since the sport resumed following the pandemic.

"Apparently I have good legs," Van Aert said after pulling on the yellow leader’s jersey.

"I came really tired to the hotel yesterday, after a few days off. The team still wanted to do a perfect job for me today because we saw some chances in the stage.

"When you have riders like Tony Martin and all these strong leaders that pulled for me in the end, I had so much motivation to go all-out in the sprint.

"I told the guys I was feeling good and wanted to give it a go. When we started to go uphill I had a whole yellow train in front. Primoz (Roglic), Tom (Dumoulin) and Steven (Kruijswijk) are the leaders for us here but they still helped me. This is a big team victory, and we keep the momentum."

As a result of time bonuses on the finish line, Tour winner Bernal picked up four seconds on his general classification rivals - including teammate Geraint Thomas - heading into the rest of the five-day stage race.

The Dauphine is often seen as the warm-up race for Tour de France hopefuls, with the delayed three-week race set to kick off on August 29.

Team Ineos have a host of options heading into the race, with current holder Bernal, 2018 winner Thomas and four-time champion Chris Froome.