The Queen Stage of the 2014 Critérium du Dauphiné promises to settle this month’s duel between Chris Froome and Alberto Contador although it’s so close we might still need Sunday’s final stage. This is a tough day with the two hardest climbs saved for last. If that’s not hard enough the hot weather could break into thunderstorms for the finish.
Note today’s stage is forecast to finish later than usual.
Glance at the profile and it looks like a day for the sprinters but look more closely and the final 30km include some disruptive roads that promise a tense finish with several sharp climbs including a 15% wall with two kilometres to go.
Many riders have marked today as the obvious day for a breakaway. With over 100 riders now over 10 minutes down on GC riders there are a lot of riders with a ticket to ride but only one winner awaits in La Mure.
With the Dauphiné having arrived in a town called Gap what better time to talk about the science and art of managing a breakaway?
Everything about a breakaway says freedom, liberty and space. But as well as a hard physical effort it’s also a tricky game of poker with bluff and counter-bluff and the bigger the race, the greater the tactics.
The race heads to the Alps with a classic stage finish in Gap with the Col de Manse followed by a steep descent to the finish. It’s a tricky stage with the action packed in the finish. There’s also a new leap in the evolution of TV today.
Read the results and you can see who won yesterday but also who might win tomorrow. Yesterday’s stage of the Dauphiné saw several promising riders in the top-20.
A fast and flat finish, today’s stage says bunch sprint in every language. But the race has a shortage of sprinters and sprint trains. Could Chris Froome go for a third stage win in a row? Just joking.
One day in and a summit finish already. The Col du Béal is a long slog on a rough road and if it’s not Alpine, it’s still a tough climb. It won’t select the winner it will thin down the list of contenders and pretenders all while offering some scenic roads.
The Tour de France visited Lyon last summer and was greeted with huge crowds. Now the racing is back and so is summer with scorching temperatures forecast for the opening time trial.
The Climb by Chris Froome
The latest book from the production line of British cycling autobiographies featuring cyclists that are still mid-career but red hot given the Chris Froome vs. Bradley Wiggins stories and unlike the books by Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, this is Froome’s first book.
The rivalry and gossip over team leadership have grabbed the headlines but there’s more, an alternative title could have been “Out of Africa”. For many readers though the big question is whether it explains how Froome burst from caterpillar to yellow butterfly.