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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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.