The Dauphiné heads into the Alps, a warm-up for the weekend to come.
Stage 5 Review: phrase of the day went to Thomas Voeckler, the ex-pro and French selector who moonlights in the summer as a moto commentator for France TV when he described the day’s breakaway as a collection of “lumberjacks” for the way they were chopping at the pedals. Nils Politt, Thomas De Gendt and Edvald Boasson Hagen were among those clear and forcing the bunch to chase hard with UAE and Soudal-Quickstep doing most of the work. The race arrived at Salins-les-Bains well ahead of schedule before heading out for a loop in the Jura hills behind.
Richard Carapaz attacked early on the climb and while some tried to go with him, only Jonas Vingegaard could follow with the Dane glued to his wheel. The trouble is Carapaz couldn’t keep up with his own attack and soon Vingegaard was alone and he decided to press on, turning a 20 second lead to 30 seconds over the top of the climb and a gap he’d keep all the way to the finish 15km later, collecting the 10 second time bonus. Carapaz paid for his efforts being dropped on the run into town with David Gaudu getting the facture salée in Salins after being dropped on the climb. Race leader Mikkel Bjerg crashed at the foot of the final climb and put up a valiant effort to chase but even if he’d stayed in the group he’d have lost yellow anyway as Vingegaard was so far ahead.
Vinegaard’s post-stage interview was brief, he’d heard about a knife attack in Annecy that left four children with severe injuries and said said the cycling didn’t really matter, adding “my thoughts are with the families” as he welled-up and left the interview.
The Route: 168km and out of the Jura and into the Alps. The stage profile above suggests not much is happening until late but the route will sap the riders, the climb out of the Rhone valley at Seyssel isn’t a mountain pass as it doesn’t fit between two mountains but it is a decent effort. Later on the Col des Aravis is listed as a 7.8km climb but there’s plenty of climbing to get to the official start point, it’s really a 30km uphill slog. It’s followed by a fast descent into Flumet which has a couple of rises on the way.
The Finish: the finish to Crest-Voland is half way up the Col des Saisies with a finish at 1,218m. There’s hard start out of the valley before the slope eases in the ski vollage of Notre Dame de Bellecombe and takes a traverse road across with a descent before the final two kilometres.
The Contenders: a breakaway? Soudal-Quickstep might fancy Julian Alaphilippe’s chances but pulling on the front of the bunch for hours to keep the breakaway under control while Jonas Vingegaard is sat tight in his Jumbo-Visma sedan chair is risky as we saw yesterday. The Dane has shown he’s got enough punch to ride away although yesterday he said he was just defending his position, it was only once Carapaz imploded that he had to ride for himself. Still, why hold back when an Alpine finish awaits.
Riders down on GC but capable of a result are Pierre Latour (Total Energies) who still seems beset by descending problems so today’s ride off Aravis descent is a concern but still within his range. Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) might have more acute concerns with crash injuries but if he’s starting today it could suit.
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Vingegaard, Alaphilippe |
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Latour, Jorgenson, Ciccone, Hindley, Vuillermoz |
Weather: warm and sunny, 25°C before the mountains but a decent chance of a downpour or a thunder storm later.
TV: the start is at 12.10 and finish is forecast for 4.40pm CEST with live TV from 3.00pm onwards.
I don’t know who that young man disguised as Carapaz was, but Chapeau. The crow tastes much worse than the hat.
Fair play, your magnanimity does you credit.
Can Vingegaard retain such a high level of form for six more weeks?
This is not his final form yet
Yes, his coach says he’s got his base for the summer but there’s final work to be done on the rest.
Is form so predictable and calculable these days? I guess a coach would say so, after all that’s much of what the whole science-based coaching paradigm is based on, but is it really? I don’t know but I know what I hope.
“Still, why hold back when an Alpine finish awaits?” For sure. I hope they’re not all saving themselves for July already.
I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK
I sleep all night, I work all day
MOUNTIES CHOIR
He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK
He sleeps all night and works all day
PALIN
I cut down trees, I eat my lunch
I go to the lavatory
On Wednesdays I go shopping
And have buttered scones for tea
MOUNTIES CHOIR
He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch
He goes to the lavatory
On Wednesdays he goes shopping
And has buttered scones for tea
He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK
He sleeps all night and works all day
PALIN
I cut down trees, I skip and jump
I like to press wild flowers
I put on women’s clothing
And hang around in bars
I cut down trees, I wear high heels
suspenders & a bra
I wish I would been a girlie
just like my dear papa
Sad thing, the breakaway always ending like that…
It is now a race for 2nd and 3rd and there is some sort of chance there will be two Australian flags there … but less than 50% unfortunately.
considering the possibility of a breakaway and riders capable of a strong performance despite their position on the general classification?
Vingegaard just decided he didn’t like what’s going on in this race and rode away from it.
Well said in his post-race interview.
Thank you for yesterday’s explanation of what’s happened to this race. It really has been watered down, but at least we’re getting to the undiluted parts now. Shame the race is already over, out of boredom as much as anything. Vingegaard evidently couldn’t wait any longer to stretch his legs.
Stage 5 was according to PCS, the fastest ever non-TT stage – 47 km/h. Not bad for a warm-up race. Carapaz’s tactics were bizarre but he at least gave it a go. No one is within a minute of Vingegaard, but UAE should be the one’s to at least try something. Mas at least finished with the main group, but we’ll see his true form come the mountains.
James Shaw gave an interesting interview where he basically said they were just seeing how they would fare against Vingegaard if they went all in
What did Shaw say about what happened to Carapaz? Not an experiment they’ll try again probably!
In other news, rumoured that Ivan Glasenberg has bought Pinarello. Another shady character in the sport!
Well, who owns Colnago these daze? When they cashed-out to LVM awhile back you knew the passion was gone…well, except for the passion for money. Are we past the time they just glue some Swarovski crystals on them and sell ’em to people with way more dollars than cents…er, sense? Now they’ll be gluing real diamonds on them…but then again, how many Richard Mille logos do ya see in the peloton? Who BUYS those things? My guess is the same guy with the diamond-encrusted/gold-plated Colnago. Will “Kim Il Sinyard” of Specialized get-in on the act soon? Either blinging-up the bikes or selling the whole thing to MBS and the Saudi’s?
Colnago cashed out to an Abu Dhabi investment company, Chimera Investments LLC, in 2020.
Pinarello had cashed out in 2016 to L Catterton, a U.S.-headquartered private equity firm. LVMH is indeed a major owner.
Sad. Other than Colnago’s C-Series all these bling-mobiles are made in the same place Kim Il Sinyard’s $14K thing comes from. WTF dolts cough up that kind of money for ’em is known only to these private-equity firms, petro sheiks, or rich a-holes like the new owner of Pinarello I guess?. Just a “designer” name fueled by piles of marketing money – but as I noted it sells other blingy crap like watches too…so…
Specialized is 49% owned by Merida, when Sinyard cashes out the other half he’ll have to do it to a party approved by them.
Yeah, I knew that – they offered me a job once. Story goes that he was so far in-debt to them the only way out was to hand over 49% of the company. I heard a similar story about Fisher and a different Taiwan bike factory. This was long before he sold-out to Trek.
My take on the whole scene is here: http://cycleitalia.blogspot.com/2023/06/cycling-new-golf.html
Am I the only one who wondered about Vingegaard’s late attack? I know he said “someone else started the show” or something to that effect, but did he just quit after a bit or was this a misfire?