Race thread: 🇫🇷 Critérium du Dauphiné 2026, June 7–14
This WT stage race goes from Sunday to Sunday, and there will be climbs everyday, even on the TTT which will therefore be exceptionally difficult.
Unfortunately, this is yet another race which was 'bought' by the local elected officials, who changed its name to promote their fiefdom, and ⅓ of the Dauphiné will never be visited any more, as it belongs to a different administration.
Riders
No Pogatchar, no Vingegaard; this leaves the door open for the next level of favourites: the UAE duo Almeida🇵🇹/Del Toro🇲🇽 and Ze Elect (🇫🇷 Decathlon). Skjelmose (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) and Jorgenson (🇺🇸 Visma) will be the main outsiders.
Stages
(I apologise if the pictures look shitty, but they were already horribly compressed Jpeg on the official website...)
NB: there are no time bonuses on this race, neither at the end of stages nor within them.
Stage 1 (Sunday 7)
146 km, 3200 m D+
::: spoiler Press to see the map :::
Stage 2 (Monday 8)
234 km, 3700 m D+
::: spoiler Press to see the map :::
Stage 3 (Tuesday 9) Team Time Trial
27 km, 400 m D+
::: spoiler Press to see the map :::
Stage 4 (Wednesday 10)
167 km, 2100 m D+
::: spoiler Press to see the map :::
Stage 5 (Thursday 11)
196 km, 2200 m D+
::: spoiler Press to see the map :::
Stage 6 (Friday 12)
183 km, 2900 m D+
::: spoiler Press to see the map :::
Stage 7 (Saturday 13)
134 km, 3700 m D+
::: spoiler Press to see the map :::
Stage 8 (Sunday 14)
120 km, 4100 m D+
::: spoiler Press to see the map :::
https://www.tour-auvergne-rhone-alpes.fr/en/Open linkView original on sh.itjust.works
Oh, so this race is the Dauphiné.... I wasn't even aware it was on because of the name change.
That's clever, isn't it? 😃
Something even more clever was brought to my attention.
Le Puy en Velay is both a stage finish and a stage start. That's how things naturally were, and they should always be, shouldn't they? There is zero transfer and it is cheaper as far as the infrastructure costs go.
They arrived in Le Puy en Velay yesterday.
And naturally they depart from there today...No, scratch that: they drive 150 km away to do the TTT! And after the TTT they drive 150 km back to be in Le Puy en Velay for the following stage tomorrow (which will bring them in direction of the place where the TTT is located to add insult to injury...)I guess, I hope for my sanity, that it wasn't planned like this and that a problem of local schedule forced the organiser to swap the two stages round...
Wow, that's.... something! Sounds like a design by committee decision... Did you see Charmig books his tour ticket yesterday? He's pretty fast so I expected him to wait for the sprint, but apparently his legs are good enough to leave normally better climbers behind. Helps that the last climb wasn't super long.
Perhaps they made a big mistake, for per UCI regulations, the TTT could not be positioned after stage 3 anyway. Did they forget about that in the fist place?
I did, I did. Sorry that I didn't post about the victory of the big Dane 😃
I think one main factor explaining the finish is that the stage was 234 km (+ 11 km of neutral start) long, with some rain on top of that. And there was no real flat in the last 140 km: there were the official climbs, but most of the rest of the terrain was hills, more or less smooth. This probably explains how R. Garcia (🇪🇸 Movistar) couldn't accelerate more in the last 30 km: half-cooked, half-numbed, he could just pace (at a pretty good pace), not accelerate.
The little Braz (🇫🇷 FDJ) knew he didn't stand a chance if he arrived with anyone else, so he attacked/followed every attack in every climb (also he wanted the Mountain jersey). Therefore he killed himself. I mean, the guy has the build of a middle-school girl... In theory, he shouldn't be made for this kind of stage, but climbs don't hurt him and, as long as he can stay in someone's wheel, he is 100% sheltered on the flat (and doesn't shelter others much). Now on the flat again, when it comes to stay ahead alone, or to catch someone up, that's much more difficult for him.
Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) is no good at the moment.
Stage 1 (Sunday 7)
Strange behaviour from Decathlon. They had a hard time finishing the Tour of the Basque Country, but on this first stage, despite Riccitello🇺🇸's early withdrawal, they rode quite a lot all day to control the breakaway. And then... nothing (everyone let the breakaway win).
Seixas🇫🇷 was alone in his group after Vauquelin (🇫🇷 Ineos) attacked with 1 or 2 extra outsiders. His teammate in Vauquelin🇫🇷's group didn't drop to wait for his leader's group, and there was no one else around.
It looks pretty much like a demonstration of weakness by the team (not by Seixas🇫🇷 himself, but his team, bar Bisiaux🇫🇷). And they provoked it themselves, by being overconfident.
Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) was dropped early in the last climb, and arrived 12 minutes after the front groups: he doesn't seem to give a damn. Either he plans to go a breakaway, or he has signed a big contract elsewhere.
Sivakov (🇫🇷 UAE): same shit.
First WT victory for Baudin🇫🇷. EF doesn't shine this year (so far), but nonetheless that's their 4^th^ WT stage victory, and they also have several honest GC performances on one-week races. Let's say that they are discreet.
I wasn't inspired much 🤣: Almeida🇵🇹 finished after 24 minutes today...
And I forgot to list Ayuso (🇪🇸 Lidl-Trek) among the favourites, complementing his teammate Skjelmose🇩🇰. The Spaniard was the one who finally gave an impulse to the Seixas🇫🇷 group to reduce the gap with the Vauquelin🇫🇷 group, today.
Stages 4 & 5
These 2 stages were similar in shape, and in the way they happened, except for the fate of the breakaway. Contrarily to the first 2 stages, the peloton truly wanted to win.
Yesterday, we had again Jegat🇫🇷 and R. Garcia🇪🇸 but this time they both had a teammate with them. They were 12 for a long time, then 11 after Watson🇬🇧 hit the ground, then 10; and all of them were pulling, pulling, pulling, generally in 2 columns, with very short relays. It was a big, long fight with the peloton, as they never had a big gap. Even Q. Simmons🇺🇸's attack didn't disorganise the group, as only the NSN rider scolded him a bit but the 2 Total behind restarted relaying immediately: the attack even increased the gap a bit. And there was Castrillo🇪🇸's acceleration, I am not sure if it was originally an attack or not, but anyway the guy then pulled everyone until the sprint, despite the fact that he was pushing the pedals with his ears and everything he could. In the sprint itself, I successively thought that at least 5 riders were about to win 😃 but Q. Simmons🇺🇸 managed to stay ahead despite starting rather early.
It has become really difficult to chase breakaways, even without leaving them any substantial gap, when there is a bit of tail wind, and the peloton riders are not so much better than the breakaway men.
Today, the breakaway was smaller, and the peloton more careful, so the outcome was much more classical. Cofidis worked a lot again, but the final result isn't much better: 11^th^ yesterday, 9^th^ today (Coquard🇫🇷).
I see on PCS that 3 riders didn't start today : 2 Movistar (Cepeda🇪🇨 and Romeo🇪🇸) and Mohoritch (🇸🇮 Barhrain). They were not favourites, but those are still known faces.
Only 4 riders left at Movistar.
Final stage
km 35: NOoooOOooOooooo...
You were supposed to be the new Hinault, not the new Pinot 😭 😭
Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) left no chances to the others, clinical. Lidl-Trek rode all day long, he just had to finish in the last climb after a short relay by Sivakov.
Van Gils (🇧🇪 Bora) came back from holidays, and stayed with Tuckwell🇦🇺 and helped him finish on the 2^nd^ step of the final podium!
Caja Rural confirmed its good performance, with Para🇪🇸 and Castellon🇪🇸 making it again in the top-15 of the stage, which allows them to score a 9^th^ and a 11^th^ place in the final GC.
The invisible man G. Martin (🇫🇷 FDJ) curiously manages to score a top-10 too. Not sure how, he never did better than 15^th^ on any stage 😄 In the same team, Braz🇫🇷 was in the breakaway one more time and quickly secured the Mountain jersey. Quite an achievement in theory, except that I would have liked that someone contested the points at least once this week... Anyway, he made it an objective and he got it, that's so much better than what FDJ accustomed us to do along the years, always neglecting secondary objectives to (not) catch the big one.
Yet another failure for Vauquelin (🇫🇷 Ineos). He and his team were very active today, but in the end he finishes far and drops to 15^th^ place in GC.
At Decathlon, Bisiaux🇫🇷 could not make up for Seixas🇫🇷's withdrawal and secure an honest GC ranking. He was in the breakaway but was dropped twice, and then couldn't stay in the peloton either. He finished behind domestiques who stopped riding when the last climb started. Close to top-10 this morning, he got kicked out of top-20... It is a terrible final assessment for Decathlon's week: by putting all their eggs in the same basket, they lost everything, as I feared before the week-end started. They were nowhere on stages (bar a 3^rd^ place on the 1^st^ stage by Bisiaux), they are nowhere in secondary classifications, and they are nowhere in final GC... In UCI terms, that less than 100 points in 8 days, for a team which aimed at final victory...
Tuckwell🇦🇺, beaten on GC, couldn't get the Youth classification either, for all 3 members of the present GC podium are eligible to Youth classification... I hope it could finish to demonstrate how pointless the U23 category has become, and that it is time for UCI to reform it, as well as for race organisers to suppress the Youth jersey and replace it with amore interesting secondary classification.
Stage 6 (Friday 12)
183 km, 2900 m D+
Decathlon has been behaving very strangely again. They let a group of 60 riders break away, chased them a bit but not quite. It is odd, sometimes they behave like they were the boss of the peloton with the obvious favourite in the team, sometimes they are very weak, sometimes they are very (over-?) confident in putting all their eggs in the same basket (Seixas crushing the last 2 stages).
In the huge breakaway group, there were several serial breakawaymen: Jegat🇫🇷, R. Garcia🇪🇸 & Castrillo🇪🇸, Q. Simmons🇺🇸, Braz🇫🇷... There were also a couple of GC outsiders: Tuckwell🇦🇺, G. Martin🇫🇷. That group had lots of domestique workforce at disposal and it was put to use: the peloton teams couldn't reduce the gaps even when then were really trying.
In the end, the Bora boys dominated the group, Van Gils🇧🇪 took the stage victory before Jonhannessen (🇳🇴 Uno-X) and Tuckwell🇦🇺 the Yellow jersey. Van Gils🇧🇪 was so confident to outsprint the Norwegain rider that 1 km from the goal, he was already getting ready for the photo.
Braz (🇫🇷 FDJ) took all the mountain points of the day except the ones at the finish. He also tried to drag G. Martin🇫🇷 but then was allowed to ride for himself and finished with the little group at 30 seconds behind the winners, while Martin finished at 1′20″ – that is, 20″ behind the rouleur Armirail🇫🇷...
That's one funny podium we have tonight: Tuckwell🇦🇺*, Armirail🇫🇷, G. Martin🇫🇷.
In the peloton, only Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) could follow Seixas (🇫🇷 Decathlon). Jorgenson (🇺🇸 Visma) held a good while but then dropped; however, Seixas🇫🇷 couldn't enlarge the gap, and Jorgenson🇺🇸 lost only 13 seconds. The two Lidl-Trek leader lost a bit more, but no so much either.
The real downfalls happened at Ineos, with Vauquelin🇫🇷 dropping early in the last climb and losing 1′30″, while his (co-)leader Onley🇬🇧crashed in the previous downhill and crossed the line second to last, out of GC and probably of the race. Same fate for Buitrago (🇨🇴 Bahrain).
Coming back to Decathlon's attitude, Del Toro🇲🇽 didn't lose an inch to Seixas🇫🇷. If it goes the same way in the real mountain this week-end, Decathlon may come back home empty-handed, as they scorned the first 6 stages (!) and all secondary classifications (there are still a ton of Mountain points to grab, though, but considering that they never ride at the front...)
And there are now 3 minutes to catch to get even with Tuckwell🇦🇺. Normally, it shouldn't be much of a problem, but still, that's a climber there.
Van Aert (🇧🇪 Visma) chickened out and left the race after his stage victory 🙄
Stage 7 (Saturday)
And here we bloody go! 😡
Seixas🇫🇷 crashed and it took him several minutes to restart...
It may be up to Bisiaux🇫🇷 to save the boat. The same whom they didn't put in the breakaway yesterday... in spite of the fact that he was in good position thanks to the breakaway of the first Sunday. They only envisioned a domestique role for him, whereas they could have made him play the co-leader, or have him aim at secondary objectives.
It turned out that Decathlon, as a team, handled the situation pretty well: despite a gap of 4 minutes with the peloton, they never panicked, got 2-3 riders to pull Seixas🇫🇷 on the flat sections, while keeping Bisiaux🇫🇷 in the peloton, where he could pull Seixas in the last climb(s) – and could still have played his own chance, should Seixas give up on the pursuit or withdraw.
Naturally he was unwell and lost time again in the terribly hard end, but neither his team nor himself panicked. They could have ridden too fast for him and cook him for the final part, or he could have relayed and blown his teammates up and then be alone, as we often see it happen in such situations (in the Roglitch years, Visma was famous for that).
Caja Rural managed to place 2 guys in the top-10 of the stage (they came together with Tuckwell (🇦🇺 Bora) who was completely abandoned by is team but managed to keep his Yellow jersey), and they weren't even in a breakaway. That was better than Bisiaux🇫🇷, Jasch🇩🇪, Tullett🇬🇧, Martin🇫🇷, Vauquelin🇫🇷 and so on. Let's see if they can survive again on the last stage, Sunday.