Isaac del Toro rides solo to the Plateau de Solaison. Third overall in the morning, he overtook Luke Tuckwell and Matteo Jorgenson to take the stage and the race overall, all with a comfortable margin.
Hurrah for the breakaways. Alex Baudin won Stage 1. Having gone clear in a breakaway, the move looked likely to be reeled in only for Baudin to strike out and profit from a stand-off among the GC contenders but no fluke, he held off the field. A big win for EF that is the lowest-ranked World Tour team. The second lowest is Groupama-FDJ and Clément Braz Afonso was in the move too and if caught, he started to collect points for the mountains competition which he’d win, some cheer for his team.
Anthon Charmig won Stage 2 and the strongest rider in a lively final hour as the breakaway riders kept attacking each other. It was close for Henri-François Haquin in second place, for a team that’s only had one win this second place probably counts (NB he is listed everywhere as Henri-François Renard-Haquin but his real name is Henri-François Haquin).
Stage 3 was the team time trial and further proof the “Paris-Nice” rules format works as a televisual spectacle. Seeing Stefan Bissegger and Wout van Aert dropped prematurely was live drama rather than the team adjusting its speed in order to allow them to sit on the back. Visma-LAB won the stage and we can probably say Netcompany-Ineos lost it thanks to two unshipped chains and when Oscar Onley dropped his they all waited costing them the nine seconds that saw them finish second. UAE were ninth at one minute but with hindsight this was alright defensively given the poor form of João Almeida and this was not their Tour team minus Pogačar. EF did well to keep Baudin in yellow.
There was more breakaway action on Stage 4 with Quinn Simmons winning the stage. Most interestingly this was not the “early breakaway stays away” surprie – see Frederik Dvernes’s Giro stage win in Milan for a recent example – instead it was a tussle between the break and the bunch with a group of strong riders going clear knowing there were few sprint teams in the race and the battle went all the way to the final kilometre.
With Stage 5 finishing in a bunch sprint and a win for Wout van Aert you wonder if one or two teams missed a trick in not bringing their sprinter and a couple of workhorse riders as while this was a mountain race, having a shot at two World Tour sprints was an opportunity, especially for teams who knew they had little chance in the mountains. Seventh on the day helped Nadav Raisberg of NSN win 10 points on his way to taking the points competition at the end.
Stage 6 saw a 60-rider breakaway get away early. We didn’t get to see this as the TV coverage was typically for the final 90 minutes of each day. In the past the race clashed with the Roland-Garros tennis meaning FranceTV had few resources and schedule availability for the Dauphiné; this time there was no overlap with the tennis but the French state broadcaster is being asked to make big savings and many of the cuts are falling on its sports output so while we’d all want more, the worry is we might have less next year and if you watch Eurosport, Flo or whatever note this includes you as they rely on the host broadcaster. We did get to see Maxim Van Gils taking his second ever World Tour win, fully recovered from his tangle with Tom Pidcock in February’s Clásica Jaén to out-sprint Tobias Halland Johannessen. Behind Paul Seixas started to make up for lost time and only Isaac del Toro could match him but on the short climb to Crest-Volland the time gaps were small. Third on the day was Luke Tuckwell who took yellow to add to the cheer for Red Bull.
If Seixas was on the up, he was down the next day with a crash early on Stage 7 that saw him slide along the ground. It took him almost four minutes to get going but he’d chase and despite other teams paying him the compliment of riding to keep him clear he made it back, but with the injuries and effort he blew on the final climb. Juan Ayuso launched a move on the steep early slopes of the Grand Colombier only for the panache to turn to ache as he paid for the move and was overtaken by Del Toro.
The final day saw a strong breakaway of climbers but they were overhauled on the final climb. Del Toro struck out solo and finished a minute clear to take the stage and the overall win.
The Verdict
Regularly a highlight of the year, this vintage is unlikely to be a top pick, it was enjoyable for the breakaways but the overall race didn’t offer surprise.
This was an emphatic win for Del Toro, his biggest triumph so far. He might have lost the Giro a year ago but he now has an Alpine stage win to his name and he did this patiently and methodically, making moves that always delivered and overcoming his team’s weak time trial.
Extrapolating from the week to the Tour de France is often a fraught exercise. It works best or is just easier when taking incontrovertible evidence rather than a flash moment, for example last year’s podium here was also the Tour podium in Paris. So Del Toro’s consistency across the three mountain stages will be reassuring for him and depressing for rivals at the Tour de France as he could accompany Tadej Pogačar far, not just on a summit finish but to the podium in Paris.
Plenty leave the race with work to do but there’s only three weeks to fix things, very little. Remco Evenepoel showed it can be done, visibly losing a lot of weight in short space of time between the 2024 Dauphiné and the Tour.
Still Juan Ayuso was good but not sparking, but still ahead of Mattias Skjelmose who was more conservative but had less to show for it. Tobias Halland Johannessen was very good for Uno-X but he was fifth last year before finishing sixth in the Tour, would Uno-X sign today for this again? Matteo Jorgenson was good but when riding high on GC it always looked like the high mountains would be a challenge, does he settle for being a contender in week-long stage races and then folding in behind Vingegaard in grand tours? Cian Uitdebroeks was solid for Movistar but unspectacular.
All these riders fared better than those that left it earlier. Seixas crashed out, his injuries on Stage 7 saw him leave on Stage 8, if he only had abrasions it means rather than cruising for the next few days he’ll be swapping bandages and sleeping badly but he can take something positive from the race with his climbing to Crest-Volland.
With hindsight Netcompany-Ineos waiting for Onley in the time trial proved wrong as they missed out on the stage win and the yellow jersey. Of course they weren’t to know at the time. But they had a rough time in a race which they’ve used as a platform before the Tour de France, wins by the likes of Wiggins, Froome and Thomas here set them up for July. Only Onley crashed out, as did Josh Tarling and his start in the Tour is uncertain especially as he’s needed most on the first day for the team time trial, while Vauquelin underwhelmed and Carlos Rodriguez was the second best Rodriguez in the race to Christian of XDS-Astana.
Was Luke Tuckwell the revelation of the race? No, because he was the revelation of the Tour de Romandie, especially by out-climbing rivals to finish sixth overall. Going in the breakaway and holding out for third place this time is encouraging he then lost two minutes a day which shows the gap to close. Either way we’ll see more of him and he helped make this the youngest ever podium at the race.
Next up the diminished Tour de Suisse. With no overlap few riders from last week go to Switzerland. But it helps teams logistics as before they had to send separate crews of support staff and a fleet of vehicles to each race, this time many teams left France last night for Italy where the Swiss tour opens on Wednesday.
Agree not the best Dauphine of recent times, by the end it was more of a demolition derby and the stories were more about those who left the race not those who were still riding. Isaac del Toro looked a class act, the rest not so much.
As to what this means for July. UAE, as so often, dont look a great team but does that really matter, outstanding individual rides win the day. Visma suffered, along with many other teams, from loosing riders, as ever looked organised, probably favourite for the opening TTT but will WvA be in top form and will Matteo Jorgenson make the team (assume so). Is there room for any of these Red Bull riders in the tour team, Maxim von Gils looked good, Luke Tuckwell continues an upward journey other than that pretty anonymous. Netcompany had more bad luck, difficult to know quite where Oscar Onley is form wise, Kevin Vauquelin does not look a rider for the big mountain climbs, Geraint Thomas possibly needs some lessons in being diplomatic when talking to the media, noticeable the podcast has gone quiet.
Not sure all the hype is doing Paul Seixas any favours, he almost seems to be playing a role that he hasnt really earned yet. I thought the decision to ride the final day was wrong, he was clearly hurt from the crash, there was little to gain from riding on, far better to have taken time out to try to recover. How quickly he will fully heal must be an open question. I suspect any suggestion of skipping the Tour in favour of the Vuelta will not be entertained but could well be the best decision for the longer term. His team were really good post crash but other than that not convinced by the tactics.
As ever thanks for the effort of producing the blog
Very nice first picture. Is it from le Grand-Colombier or le Plateau de Solaison ?
As many french people, the race lost his main interest when Seixas fell, but Del Toro is a fair winner. I still find it hard to forgive him the Maglia Rosa’s treason of last year’s Giro, but I hope to overcome it soon : after all, he seems to be a nice guy. Is Van Gils more a climber than a puncheur ?