The big day in the Dauphiné. Can anyone turn the tables on Tadej Pogačar and his team?
If you’ve been tuning all week so far, note today’s finish is an hour earlier than usual.
Combloux everyone away: the stage and yellow jersey for Tadej Pogačar. UAE took to control the stage early, only for Visma-LAB to rush into the climb of Mont-Saxonnex and try to dictate things. The pace of Victor Campenaerts then Sep Kuss forced an immediate selection.
Florian Lipowitz made an attack which, with a lot of flat roads left, did not require hindsight to see this was not a wise move, even if it was entertaining and few could or would follow. Paul Seixas was notable here too, hanging out Pogačar and Vingegaard.
UAE were able to regroup and took over again leading into the Domancy climb and Pogačar attacked here. Or just accelerated as like on the Mur de Huy in April he didn’t even have to stand on the pedals. Only Jonas Vingegaard could follow but suddenly a gap opened up and this grew to over a minute by the finish. Did the location matter? Domancy and the road to Combloux was where Pogačar got ransacked by Vingegaard in the 2023 Tour de France time trial, now the tables were turned.
The rest were scattered over the mountain, only four more riders came in within two minutes of the winner, including race leader Remco Evenepoel at 1m50s.
It was the stage that suited Pogačar the most thanks to his punch, but the thinking was more he’d come into the finish and jab for the stage win. Here he made a knock-out strike, it wasn’t one acceleration but a sustained 15 minute effort. If it hasn’t extinguished the hopes of a contest in July, the sight of Vingegaard left trailing doesn’t bode well. We’ll see what he’s got today.
The Route: 132km and 4,800m of vertical gain, a lot for the short distance. Today’s climbs are so long that it’s almost not worth dwelling on the smaller details of them, two one hour long climbs await.
It’s straight up the Col de la Madelaine, almost 25km at 6.3%. It has some flat and gentler parts which offer relief but only mean it’ll get harder again.
The Croix de Fer is 22.4km at 6.9% and it’s up via the Col du Glandon first before the left turn at the top to reach the Croix de Fer. Then down the main road for the descent.
The Finish: if Valmeinier is a new name for you, it begins with an old road, the first 10km are the Col du Télégraphe leading to the Galibier but then comes a left turn and there’s another 6.5km to the finish. The flatter 4% sections on the profile above actually have a downhill part to them, presumably averaged out for the image. Then with 5km to go it’s back uphill all the way to the line on a steady road to the ski station.
The Contenders: Tadej Pogačar (UAE) has settled some questions about form, now we’ll see more about motivation and his team. UAE set up him for the win yesterday but they’d also ran out of riders when Visma put them under pressure, and there had not been much climbing by that point either.
An off-day for Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB)? His relative strength versus Pogačar might be on long climbs and today supplies this, albeit within 131km.
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Pogačar |
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Vingegaard |
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Lipowitz, Evenepoel, Buitrago, Healy |
Weather: 32°C in the valley and sunshine.
TV: KM is at 11.55 and the finish is earlier than all week at 16.30 CEST. There should be two hours of live coverage.
Postcard from Valmeinier
What is gravel racing? The sport has taken off in recent years as a separate branch but there’s no settled definition. Some gravel bikes can be just road bikes with wider tires, others are practically mountain bikes with drop bars.
As for the race routes gravel tends to be on flat terrain, the worlds held by the UCI tend to have 1,000-2,000m of vertical gain which translates as hilly. There seems to be a format.
But this part of the Alps, and many more, have plenty offroad track; just around the corner there’s a gravel road up to the mighty Col du Galibier. Could a gravel race like the worlds happen here too? Or not, would it be too much? OK for a bike-packing ultra event but not gravel?
This definitional aspect may be the very opposite of gravel. Just go ride rather than worrying about too many rules or codes. But given the increasing amount of sponsorship, and all the commercial angles someone has to think about it. The mountain bike world has been through all of this already.
Valmeinier today is hosting the Dauphiné for the first time, maybe the Tour de France will come here soon. It gets publicity but the risk is it looks like just another ski station summit finish. How to stand out? A gravel section beyond the finish is one idea. We’ve seen it in the Giro a few times, it could be repeated as a means of getting more attention.
Nice ride by Lipowitz … and Evenopoel has Jorgenson to worry about as well now.
In his interview Pogacar said “hold the horses for the Tour” so he is unlikely to do any more attacking.
He may have meant it, but I doubt he can help himself.
I wonder if some of the riders from Dunbar down (2:30 behind) could be given the leeway to either go in the early break or on the last mountain with UAE not stressed enough to chase maximum hard straight away.
starting on that bug climb surely the break will contain only decent climbers.
It’ll be interesting if everyone expects UAE to control from the start today. Wellens was very strong yesterday but the others were not, unless they sat up to save themselves for today.
No, UAE and Visma aren’t going to let a climber that close on GC get away up the road.
No, unless UAE final stage Giro tactics are employed.
A sincere question: in what scenario does Evenepoel merit a chainring? If anything, isn’t today far less suited to his characteristics? He seems to be toast (albeit near the podium…)
It’s quite a tough day to predict – will Pog now rest up and follow? A break could be let go far into the distance. Or will he explode the peloton and psychologically crush his rivals? Will Jonas rebound on a day more favourable to his strengths as Pog suffers following altitude training and yesterday’s exploits?
It seems fairly clear that Jonas and Visma just tried to assert themselves and end up flat on their faces so Pog will now ride away with the Dauphiné and Tour barring injury.
But you never know – and one thing Remco has repeatedly done throughout his career is bounce back and we know his quality, so one off day shouldn’t mean we forget that his pride may line up a searing late attack as Pod/Vin watch each other. Unlikely yes, but that’s why there’s only one chainring.
Yes, it’s bouncing back. He struggled on the steeper slopes and the idea is today’s climbs are much longer and steadier which suit him a bit more. But one chainring for this and just.
Have anyone seen such domination on a bike before? I have been freaked out by Pog before, but this was once again a new level. And second best man on the climb must have been Wellens, after all the hard pulling the hill before he still was with Evenepoel on the last climb!
Why was Wellens holding on to that group? Seems like a waste of energy for a domestique.
Training for the longer climbs of the Tour according to Simon Gerrans
Sorry, didn’t mean to be anonymous.
I think the nasty fall, that Remco had the day before, affected him more than he let on.
This was confirmation that the Tour will be as boring as last year.
Pogacar rides like a man among boys again. He rides in control, a league above a struggling Vingegaard and several leagues above the rest.
I’ll spare you the conspiracy theories on how this is possible.
Lipowitz looks like a man for the podium. Interesting to see a rider who dares to attack in this company
It’s not boring until it’s boring.
It was pretty intense to see Pog win the stage, barely sweating, looking fresh as a daisy, meanwhile Vindigo was gasping for air, looking drawn and soaked with sweat, his head hunched between his shoulders. Not even close to being competitive. How is one man THAT superior? It’s mind boggling.
If, like me, you are involved in horse racing, it’s not quite so surprising. Arkle, Desert Orchid, Frankel were all just almost effortlessly superior to some very classy rivals. They were also distinguished by their ability to win over different distances, on different courses and in different conditions ( most horses are ground dependent).
You see this in other sports as well. When Michael Jordan was in his prime he was so much better than the next best and often made it look effortless. Or in running with Usain Bolt.
Sepp Kuss, appearing momentarily at the front, seems to have lost the level he had a few years ago. Was he saving for today, is he still building for July, or is it a more general decline?
Didn’t Kuss have a covid infection at end of last season? Maybe he’s suffering a form of “long covid” or its after effects?
Covid is becoming weaker over time, and for most people now, it’s no worse than a few days of mild influenza.
But, a 1% drop in aerobic performance wouldn’t be noticeable to the vast majority of “normal” people, even amateur endurance athletes. At the rarefied level of the WT’s elite, a 1% drop would be a big concern.
He had covid before the TdF and was excluded. I read that he had a hard time recovering, well into the off season if I recall.
Strange race, seems like a different narrative every day. I thought Visma messed up, after dropping many on the cat 2 they seemed to disappear. Jonas Vinegegaard was at the back of the bunch at the start of the final climb, the team scattered whilst UAE were pulling at the front (not with mountain goats either). It was odd.
Good rides by Florian Lipowitz (outside shout at the podium in July?), Eddie Dunbar & Paul Seixas (as Romain Bardet hangs up his racing bike the eternal “new” French hope?)
Gravel is not a stand-alone discipline. It’s just part of road racing, in my mind. I hope there is more and more gravel in road racing, in fact.
I think that gravel adds spice but the problem from a TV point of view is all the dust … visibility. I always pity the rider on the front who has to put up with dust clouds from a car.
It can’t be good for the riders breathing at max capacity in all that dust. If there were too many more races like Strade Bianche you’d have riders having to retire with miners lung.
I actually wonder how healthy high level endurance sports are. It seems like they put their bodies through conditions that have to do some damage. I wonder how much it counterbalances the positive effects of being very fit.
Strade Bianche runs in March, hence the dust is not too bad due to the the slight dampness of the gravel. When they ran it in late summer (during Covid) the dust was horrific. The world gravel championship, running in Sept/Oct again has the gravel damp enough not to create too much dust. They really do need to think about this.
Ultra bikepackung and gravel mentioned on the INRNG…now there’s a change of pace and surface ;-). Busy times when you follow both – the Tour Divide has just started, featuring ao known hard man Svein Tuft, and there are various races ongoing in Europe as well.
Just reading Tuft’s autobiography and will do a review at some point, many will know of his unconventional route into the sport – hauling his dog on a trailer to go trekking into the wilderness – but it’s that raised many times over.
Oh no – not again. F…..
It’s perfectly normal. Nothing to see here.
We will have a copy of last year. Pogacar will be racing at top level for 7 months straight. Of course.
The TT was surely down to equipment. Vingegaard is obviously no where near Pogis absolute watts values (and never was).
Indeed. And Pogacar can deliver the watts 7 months in a row. Somehow.
Now we just need Almaida to run away with the Swiss laurels. The only way UAE is going to lose a major race this year is by f… up Del Toro-style or if/when MvdP has a good day in a Classic. Gianetti has the recipe.
Is it porridge?
Was he just tempoing to the end in the last 5 km?
Sure seems that way. TP was riding very smooth, no bobbing around on the bike, no grimacing. JV seemed the opposite — he was going deep into red to not lose more time.
It seems weird to not want more than a minute on Vingegaard if more time was there for the taking. Or is he being sporting? Or thinking of all the gripes about him crushing everyone?
If anything, today was more discouraging than yesterday. Pogi wasn’t even trying for the last few km’s.
Indeed. Pog is – somehow – nowhere near his max. And it shows. I don’t know how it’s possible to keep this level over an entire season. But I’ll bet good money he’ll be cruising away with the Tour and whatever he sets his sight on. Save for any freak accident.
So what do we make of it? Will we having a true July-fight between the three best GC riders in the world – Pog, Vin and Rem? Nopes. Its scary how big the gap is. And look at Jorgenson, Luss, Carlos Rodriguez, … Its so scewed its laughable.
Makes me look back wistfully on the Giro and the thrill of actual competition and not knowing what a race outcome would be.
The Giro will likely be the highlight of the year. Almeida will walk away with the TdS, Pog with the Tour of course, and they will probably find a combination to secure the Vuelta. Cycling on autopilot the rest of the year.
“There’s no pleasing some people”
“That’s just what Jesus said, sir”
American commentators were trying to put a shine on the turd that this Dauphine has become, but I don’t see how you can. If he wants to, and he probably will, Pogi will win again tomorrow. The Tour organizers were smart to keep the early stages pretty focused on non-GC riders. I can see a very dull final week if everything goes as it should based on these results.
Remco is the new Pidcock. Trying to be a GC winner but wont be. Stick to your strengths.
But he *is* a GC winner! 🙂 A three-time GC winner, to be precise!
Joking aside, I must admit that I cannot foresee him winning another GT. That Vuelta will remain an unicum.
The question is: is his pursuit of GT glory taking away his strengths or diminishing his success in the one-day races?
I don´t think so – and I think there is something laudable in the way he´s taken on the challenge despite everyone and his uncle expressing serious doubt about the wisdom and the fruitfulness of that pursuit.
And in any case, a 3rd place in July behind P and V is a result one can be proud of – and it will be an achievement this year as well!
Also a grand tour contender is paid millions while a time trial specialist can do very well but not close. You can see the incentives.
My thought at the end of yesterday’s stage was not that Remco needs to worry about Pog and JV, but rather that he needs to be worried about Del Toro, Lipowitz, Seixas etc. There are some amazing riders 21 and under who look like the ones to snatch the big results from the current superstars. I wonder if Remco should focus on being a “super Pidcock” and not focus on winning GTs. He’s a phenomenal athlete, I’m just not sure that he has the specific ability to survive massive climbs over multiple days and weeks. It took a special set of circumstances for him to win the Vuelta, and it doesn’t seem that likely that everything will fall into place again.