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+
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Stage 2 (Monday 8)
234 km, 3700 m D+
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Stage 3 (Tuesday 9) Team Time Trial
27 km, 400 m D+
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Stage 4 (Wednesday 10)
167 km, 2100 m D+
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Stage 5 (Thursday 11)
196 km, 2200 m D+
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Stage 6 (Friday 12)
183 km, 2900 m D+
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Stage 7 (Saturday 13)
134 km, 3700 m D+
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Stage 8 (Sunday 14)
120 km, 4100 m D+
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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.