A sprint stage or not? Today’s course looks the most sprint friendly… but has plenty to enjoy with the “secret” wall of Dun, a trip to village called Le Guidon (“the handlebar”) before a hilly finish in white wine country near Macon with some climbs, marked and unmarked, that could spoil things for some of the heavyset riders. It’ll be windy in the finish too.
A time trial with three reference points: first to win the stage, second to shape the overall classification with a view to winning the race outright by Sunday… and third a form test ahead of the Tour de France.
No change but things are getting close at the relegation threshold.
Given Alpecin-Fenix and Arkéa-Samsic have said they want promotion and sit high on the three year rankings, the story looks set to be all about relegation from here until the end of the season.
The first ski station summit finish of the Dauphiné… but hold on, it’s not a big climb and more a hut, car park with a chairlift as a ski station. So imagine an uphill bunch sprint although the breakaway has a good chance.
The Dauphiné starts with a hilly opening stage in the Rhone valley, with enough climbing to spoil things for some of the sprinters.
Beware the early finish as today’s the only time the race overlaps with the tennis at Rolland Garros and the tennis gets scheduling priority.
The Critérium du Dauphiné starts this Sunday and it’s Primož Roglič versus the field, the next best challenger could even be teammate Jonas Vingegaard. However there’s a stack of other names and as good as Jumbo-Visma are, their seven man team can’t control everything.
With one month to go the 2022 Tour de France guide is online now, complete with stage profiles, a quick comment on each day’s course and reference material on all the useful rules like the points and mountains competition, time cuts and more.
Just go to inrng.com/tour
A data dump of a week because all the points from the Giro are included… but no big changes in the standings.
The last climb of the last mountain stage and above the ski village of Malga Ciapela Jai Hindley and Richard Carapaz have dropped Mikel Landa. Hindley’s bridged across to his waiting team mate Lennard Kämna and now Carapaz is struggling, a gap is opening up between him and Hindley. Carapaz can’t manage his losses, he cracks and loses a minute and half on the Passo Fedaia. This was the moment Jai Hindley won the Giro d’Italia.
