The massive day within the Dauphiné. Can anybody flip the tables on Tadej Pogačar and his group?
In the event you’ve been tuning all week to date, notice right now’s end is an hour sooner than common.
Combloux everybody away: the stage and yellow jersey for Tadej Pogačar. UAE took to manage the stage early, just for Visma-LAB to hurry into the climb of Mont-Saxonnex and attempt to dictate issues. The tempo of Victor Campenaerts then Sep Kuss pressured an instantaneous choice.
Florian Lipowitz made an assault which, with a number of flat roads left, didn’t require hindsight to see this was not a smart transfer, even when it was entertaining and few may or would observe. Paul Seixas was notable right here too, hanging out Pogačar and Vingegaard.
UAE have been in a position to regroup and took over once more main into the Domancy climb and Pogačar attacked right here. Or simply accelerated as like on the Mur de Huy in April he didn’t even have to face on the pedals. Solely Jonas Vingegaard may observe however out of the blue a spot opened up and this grew to over a minute by the end. Did the placement matter? Domancy and the street to Combloux was the place Pogačar bought ransacked by Vingegaard within the 2023 Tour de France time trial, now the tables have been turned.
The remaining have been scattered over the mountain, solely 4 extra riders got here in inside two minutes of the winner, together with race chief Remco Evenepoel at 1m50s.
It was the stage that suited Pogačar probably the most because of his punch, however the considering was extra he’d come into the end and jab for the stage win. Right here he made a knock-out strike, it wasn’t one acceleration however a sustained 15 minute effort. If it hasn’t extinguished the hopes of a contest in July, the sight of Vingegaard left trailing doesn’t bode nicely. We’ll see what he’s bought right now.
The Route: 132km and 4,800m of vertical achieve, so much for the brief distance. As we speak’s climbs are so lengthy that it’s nearly not price dwelling on the smaller particulars of them, two one hour lengthy climbs await.
It’s straight up the Col de la Madelaine, nearly 25km at 6.3%. It has some flat and gentler components which supply reduction however solely imply it’ll get more durable once more.
The Croix de Fer is 22.4km at 6.9% and it’s up by way of the Col du Glandon first earlier than the left flip on the high to succeed in the Croix de Fer. Then down the principle street for the descent.
The End: if Valmeinier is a brand new title for you, it begins with an previous street, the primary 10km are the Col du Télégraphe resulting in the Galibier however then comes a left flip and there’s one other 6.5km to the end. The flatter 4% sections on the profile above even have a downhill half to them, presumably averaged out for the picture. Then with 5km to go it’s again uphill all the best way to the road on a gentle street to the ski station.
The Contenders: Tadej Pogačar (UAE) has settled some questions on type, now we’ll see extra about motivation and his group. UAE arrange him for the win yesterday however they’d additionally ran out of riders when Visma put them underneath stress, and there had not been a lot climbing by that time both.
An off-day for Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB)? His relative energy versus Pogačar is likely to be on lengthy climbs and right now provides this, albeit inside 131km.
Pogačar
Vingegaard
Lipowitz, Evenepoel, Buitrago, Healy
Climate: 32°C within the valley and sunshine.
TV: KM is at 11.55 and the end is sooner than all week at 16.30 CEST. There ought to be two hours of dwell protection.
Postcard from ValmeinierWhat is gravel racing? The game has taken off lately as a separate department however there’s no settled definition. Some gravel bikes might be simply street bikes with wider tires, others are virtually mountain bikes with drop bars.
As for the race routes gravel tends to be on flat terrain, the worlds held by the UCI are likely to have 1,000-2,000m of vertical achieve which interprets as hilly. There appears to be a format.
However this a part of the Alps, and lots of extra, have loads offroad observe; simply across the nook there’s a gravel street as much as the mighty Col du Galibier. Might a gravel race just like the worlds occur right here too? Or not, would it not be an excessive amount of? OK for a bike-packing extremely occasion however not gravel?
This definitional facet could be the very reverse of gravel. Simply go trip moderately than worrying about too many guidelines or codes. However given the growing quantity of sponsorship, and all of the business angles somebody has to consider it. The mountain bike world has been by all of this already.
Valmeinier right now is internet hosting the Dauphiné for the primary time, perhaps the Tour de France will come right here quickly. It will get publicity however the danger is it appears like simply one other ski station summit end. Easy methods to stand out? A gravel part past the end is one thought. We’ve seen it within the Giro a number of occasions, it may very well be repeated as a method of getting extra consideration.
