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The Tour de France creeps ever closer. We can almost see it around the corner.
The Dauphiné helps with that, as it uses same-coloured jerseys and features many of the same characters we'll see in July, helping us acclimatise.
Oh, and the snippy comments in the media are reminiscent of the Tour's pressure cooker. As is the sight of Remco Evenepoel's helmet strap tan. As is the sight of Chris Froome on a water-bike-pedalo contraption. Wait...
The Dauphiné lives on 💪
Despite the best efforts of French local government officials, the Dauphiné name lives!
Sure, by this time next year we'll all probably have relaxed into calling it the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. But not just yet!
Look how much delight this child is taking from holding up a sign to the TV camera asking the rhetorical question: 'Where is the Dauphiné?'
The kids are alright! Despite our concerns last week.
Turns out it's not been easy for even the professionals to adapt to the Dauphiné's new name. France TV commentators have used the old name multiple times, and when one of them dared to call the race the "Tour des Baroudeurs d’Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes" to pay homage to the strength of this year's stage-winning breakaway efforts, co-commentator (and ASO medium-to-large bigwig) Marion Rousse sarcastically said "there were not enough words in the [new] name".
The Dauphiné is not going down without a fight!
Fighting talk 👊
In a good sign ahead of the Tour de France, the Dauphiné's peloton is speaking its mind!
First up, we had Netcompany-Ineos' Kévin Vauquelin bemoaning the fact he had to wait for teammate Oscar Onley after the Scot had dropped a chain, which effectively cost them the stage to Visma-Lease a Bike (who only finished nine seconds ahead) and a shot at the yellow jersey.
"If you then decide to wait for someone, whether or not they are a strong rider, you lose a huge amount of time. Commentators spoke of a time loss of 15 to 20 seconds, because you lose an incredible amount when you go from 80 to 55 kilometers per hour, only to shift back up to eighty kilometers. That really is a huge difference," Vauquelin explained.
"I don’t think that would have been my strategy. We will evaluate the race with the team afterwards. But, we were in good physical shape. We rode a good time trial. I think there are still positive points to take away, even though we didn’t win in the end."
With the plethora of top-10-but-outside-the-top-5 talent Ineos has accumulated, we're looking forward to seeing their version of the Movistar trident (maybe a Sheffield steel fork?) explode into a war of words at the Tour de France, maybe as early as the opening team time trial in Barcelona.
And if team feuding is what you're here for, don't worry, because Juan Ayuso is back baby.
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