It almost fell apart in the eleventh hour, but Primož Roglič achieved what he set out to do in the build-up to the Tour de France with overall victory at the Critérium du Dauphiné, fending off Paris-Nice winner Matteo Jorgenson and GC revelation Derek Gee. Remco Evenepoel meanwhile set about racing himself into form in the mountains, eventually finishing seventh after taking a statement victory in the stage 4 time trial.
An unfortunate major talking point by the end of the Dauphiné was the attrition rate. This was partly down to the disastrous crash on stage 5, but there were also illnesses, Covid-19 positives, and the simple desire to preserve form for some in the final weekend. Big names forced home included Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and up-and-coming underdog GC contender Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla).
One team that was completely unaffected by illness or injury though was Bora-Hansgrohe, which brought seven of their eight riders destined for the Tour. For seven beautiful days, their dress rehearsal couldn’t have gone any better, but it was desperately close to ending in disaster.
Brief stage-by-stage results:
- Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)
- Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility)
- Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech)
- (ITT) Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep)
- NR
- Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe)
- Primož Roglič
- Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers)
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A string of firsts
- The opening two stages eased the Dauphiné into a week of hard and fast racing with a fairly traditional sprint and a moderate uphill finish. With few sprinters on the start line, it was pretty much mano a mano for Mads Pedersen and Sam Bennett, and after hard work all day by the sprinters’ team, including neutralising optimistic late attacks in the lumpy run-in, it was Pedersen who raised his arms to take the first yellow jersey of the week.
- Day two was an opportunity for the punchier riders, and perhaps a first chance for the GC contenders to show themselves. It looked set to reward Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R) from the breakaway as he climbed into the thick fog that obscured the finish, but it was the still quite sizeable bunch that appeared first, and Magnus Cort led them home with a punch of victory, his first in Uno-X Mobility colours, also the Scandinavian team’s first at WorldTour level.
- The second hilltop finish of the race culminated in a result that was celebrated far and wide. Once again, it was a large group that made it to the finish having left it late to reel in the breakaway, and Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) was the first to attack under the flamme rouge. Once he was neutralised, it was his teammate Derek Gee’s turn to accelerate hard, drawing a response from Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), who quickly overhauled the Canadian. However, the finish line was further than it seemed, and Gee was able to come back around the Frenchman to take his first professional victory (outside national ITT champs) at long last. With it, and the three-second gap to the peloton, the 26-year-old also took the yellow jersey.
Evenepoel back on top?
- The time trial came next, a 34.4-kilometre race of truth that seemed to get harder the longer it lasted. While European TT champ Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) was a major favourite, world champion Evenepoel had a huge test on his hands two months after crashing out of the Basque Country – and he smashed it. He took 17 seconds out of Tarling, predominantly in the lumpier latter half, and though Gee flew through the course to take sixth on the stage, Evenepoel took over the race lead with a 33-second buffer over Roglič – cue Dauphiné-related overreaction!
- The stage 4 TT was the first real chance to assess the summer’s GC contenders – bearing in mind that the Tour includes almost 60 km of time trialing – and while Evenepoel clearly comes out glowing, Roglič (+39 seconds) and Jorgenson’s (+1:07) third and fourth places respectively point in the right direction. Juan Ayuso and Tao Geoghegan Hart wrapped up the top ten 1:27 and 1:38 slower than the world champion, with Carlos Rodríguez 1:41 down in eleventh. Sepp Kuss, however, lost 3:36 to the new race leader, effectively ending his team’s leadership questions for the Dauphiné – it was later reported that Kuss may have been recovering from illness, hence his sub-par performance this week.
- The second of just two sprint days was meant to follow, and the stage certainly got underway in the textbook fashion, but with the three-rider breakaway still about 30 seconds up the road, it all came crashing down with 21 kilometres remaining – half the peloton hit the slick road at speed shortly after a downpour had turned the surface into an ice rink. Evenepoel, Roglič and Ayuso were among the many sent like skittles, but worst affected were Steven Kruijswijk and Dylan van Baarle whose injuries rule them out of the Tour de France and further dent the Visma-Lease a Bike resolve. The stage was neutralised as a result.
Mountain domination … mostly
- The GC teams really came to the fore on stage 6 with a summit finish on the hors-catégorie Collet d’Allevard (11.2 km at 8.5%). It was operation Roglič for Bora-Hansgrohe once on the final slopes, and Vlasov put to rest the doubts as to his team role with a heavy workload in the closing kilometres, tag teaming with Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) to put Evenepoel in trouble and set up the Slovenian’s move. Roglič – in the green points jersey – took Giulio Ciccone with him but distanced the Italian in the run-in to take the stage and overall lead. Vlasov’s third place moved him up into the top five, as Derek Gee showed yet more stellar form to finish just behind Vlasov in fourth.
- Roglič’s second-consecutive stage win followed on Saturday’s Queen Stage after a show of force from Bora-Hansgrohe. After a number of contenders faded away on the lower slopes of the HC finishing climb, Vlasov was last man for Roglič, putting lone leader Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) out of his misery with 2 km remaining and towing the last of the favourites into the final kilometre. Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) tried to make a move with Oier Lazkano (Movistar) quick to react, but the yellow jersey punched into the final few-hundred metres at a pace too fierce for his rivals, only Jorgenson able to grab the wheel and avoid losing precious seconds.
- With Evenepoel losing yet more time and Gee holding fast among the GC riders to take fifth at Samoëns 1600, the Canadian joined Roglič and Jorgenson on the overall podium with one stage to go, as the young Belgian dropped to sixth in the GC standings.
- The final stage seemed highly likely to be another Bora-Hansgrohe show, but the day got underway with promises to attack circling from other teams, including Ciccone, Jorgenson and Laurens De Plus on Rodríguez’s behalf. And while Roglič’s team looked very much in control for much of the stage, it almost all fell apart for them on the final climb to the finish. Ciccone launched an early attack with more than 8 km to go, but only served to provide bait for his rivals as De Plus slammed the hammer down hard. The Ineos Grenadiers domestique effectively got rid of Vlasov, successfully isolating Roglič before Rodríguez made his own acceleration, which only Jorgenson, Gee, Buitrago and De Plus could follow. Roglič tried to claw his way back, but soon found himself in a race for seconds as Jorgenson reached out for another yellow jersey.
- With De Plus and Buitrago dropped, the leading trio entered the final two kilometres with over half a minute’s advantage over Roglič, but Gee wasn’t long for the lead, grimacing with every muscle of his body as he finally let go a little outside the flamme rouge. It was up to Jorgenson to set the pace until about 400 metres to go when Rodríguez took over and dragged the white jersey to the line, the Spaniard taking stage honours, and Jorgenson sacrificing four bonus seconds on his wheel.
- In the end, those four seconds wouldn’t have mattered, but only just. Roglič managed to hang on to eight seconds to seal overall victory.
Quotes of the race:
I definitely had a hard time today. But the same goes for the past few days. It was a tough edition with all the climbs and falls this week.”
Primož Roglič after sealing overall victory despite late scare
You always have a little bit of impostor syndrome, especially after the Giro [in 2023]. Credit to the team, they’ve always believed in me but sometimes it’s a little harder to believe in yourself when you have such a good race or a good three weeks last year, and then you go back to the level you were in before it. You think ‘was that a fluke?’ So it’s nice for the confidence to be able to back it up this year.”
Derek Gee said after his stage 3 win, before his superb performances in the mountains which carried him to third overall
Brief analysis:
- Had we asked this question yesterday, the answer might have been very different: how’s Roglič looking three weeks from the Tour de France? Until stage 8, he and his whole team were running like a well-oiled machine, delivering their unflappable leader to the final kilometre where he’d launch his stage-winning effort. The only place he took any significant time out of his rivals was in the time trial, otherwise, he measured his efforts and defended the lead, perhaps saving himself for the Tour. But now that reasoning looks shaky. Could he have attacked and obliterated the competition even if he wanted to? After his stage 8 performance, Roglič will probably see his odds slip slightly as Pogačar looks ever stronger in pole position. There are several – including Evenepoel – who have a busy three weeks ahead of them.
- There were meant to be a couple of opportunities for the few sprinters who opted to attend the Dauphiné, Sam Bennett and Mads Pedersen the biggest names in the pack. In the end, the fast men only had the one chance to show themselves on stage 1, the solitary other flat finish neutralised after the stage 5 crash. Pedersen, then, comes out of the pre-Tour race looking stellar, while Bennett – who’s had a recent morale boost with four stage wins at the Four (six) Days of Dunkirk – will have to settle for the satisfaction of besting the second-tier sprinters in his wake. There’s not much else to say there; Lidl-Trek were very much in charge, with Ryan Gibbons so confident in his leader that he was up and celebrating before the Dane had crossed the line.
- Without doubt the revelation of the Dauphiné was 26-year-old Canadian Derek Gee. Of course, he was all over the 2023 Giro d’Italia, but he’s taken a huge step up in the pre-tour race. He was already known to be a strong climber and a great time trialist, but his stage 3 victory proved the foundation for an unexpected GC ride, out-climbing many of the pre-race favourites to climb onto the podium on the penultimate day. He’s taken even himself and his team by surprise: “We are still looking at how far he can go in the rankings,” sports director Eric Van Lancker told Wielerflits, likening his late bloomer to Geraint Thomas. “I was personally very surprised. His stage victory … was already very nice, but following the best climbers in the world is an impressive achievement. The nice thing is that we don’t know where he might end up.” Gee is slated to make his debut at the Tour later this month, and though it would be a little surprising to see him go for GC at this stage, it’s a safe bet he’ll be protected in the hills and mountains.
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