The Dauphiné, the Tour of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes… or the Tour de l’Avenir? This race does feel futuristic as the last two Avenir winners Isaac Del Toro and Paul Seixas are set to duel here and for years to come. There are other challengers including 23 year old Juan Ayuso and 21 year old Jørgen Nordhagen, and a tough course ahead.
The Critérium du Dauphiné is now the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The change was announced last year but will need time to feel right.
The new name is like a mouthful to say and a handful to type but the real problem is not the name change, more that it should have happened long ago.
What does victory taste like? For Uno-X it’s a bottle of Faxe Kondi, a Danish soft drink after the company signed a big sponsorship deal with the team.
The winning moment? No, rather than a breakthrough decisive moment, this Giro d’Italia gave us repeat results across multiple mountain stages. Jonas Vingegaard would attack mid-climb, Felix Gall would briefly give chase before deciding otherwise while the rest paced themselves as best they could. Each mountain stage felt like a Bayesian exercise in confirmation every each test brought the same result from Blockhaus to Piancavallo.
Rome and a victory parade. There is suspense to come. Don’t tune expecting action from start to finish, but there is massive pressure on Jonathan Milan to salvage a sprint win at the end.
The final mountain stage. If you plan to watch, note the timing is different so that TV coverage can switch to the start of the women’s Giro which begins today.
The Queen Stage? Yes, but at 151km today’s stage is minor royalty. It’ll still be entertaining and scenic too.
At the start of the Giro this would have been “the breakaway day” for everyone with dreams of a life-changing stage win. It could still be but with several sprinters’ teams struggling for success and Paul Magnier needing points they now have an interest to try and lock this down.
A stage in Switzerland or Svizzera to locals, and also a share of the pro peloton and more.
