2019 Criterium du Dauphine; spoilers if you've not seen the day before's coverage.

[Brucey]

The classic warm-up to the TdeF starts today; highlights on ITV4 @ 7pm each evening, (with no repeat broadcast; if you miss it then it is on ITV player perhaps?).

cheers

[Brucey]

stage one saw Edvald BH win in a well-timed sprint, with no big movements on GC for the main contenders.

A few riders didn't start stage two or didn't finish it; their 'test' to see if they had recovered health enough to race ended there. Steve Cummings was amongst them, and his participation in the TdeF , which was likely to be his last anyway, is now very doubtful.

Stage two was a hard race; a bit like a spring classic (with cool wet weather to match) i.e. with enough climbing that a 'selection' could be made . With small teams (seven riders) on the race it is difficult for 'protected riders' to be protected; so GC riders were exposed sooner than one might expect.

An early break was caught (it contained too many GC contenders) but a later one stayed away and allowed Dylan Teuns to break French hearts by outsprinting Guillame Martin for the stage win, 13s ahead of the second group on the road. This group contained those riders who were able to make the selection in the latter part of the race, and comprised Fuglsang, Pinot, Woods, Lutsenko, Vakoc, Quintana, Poels, Adam Yates, Chris Froome.

Losing about 30s to those riders, courtesy of a split on the final climb, was a second group containing Dan Martin, Kruijswijk, Buchmann, Richie Porte, Bardet. Notables such as Van Aert and Edvald BH were a further minute behind, but Tom Du Moulin -who is still recovering from injury and treating this as a training race- found that his participation in an early breakaway cost him; he went out the back and lost nearly nine minutes on the stage. He could still be a disruptive factor in later stages; he now has nothing to lose by attacking and won't now be chased down in the same way. Julien Alaphillipe -another early breakaway participant- lost even more time than that. Buchmann however was still strong enough to make the second group despite participating in the same breakaway.

So it already looks likely that the GC winner will come from the riders in the first or second group; however (with the possible exception of Buchmann), that the latter couldn't make the final selection doesn't bode too well for their chances.

Of interest was the manner of the front group's riding; Pinot (who attacked repeatedly) and Fuglsang were very strong and Froome closed a lot of gaps. That some pure climbers stayed in that group says that those riders have canny heads on their shoulders as well as being on good form.

It is already shaping up to be a very interesting race. Bizarrely the coverage included that Fuglsang's daughter had been bitten in the finger by what was described as a 'chicken-kangaroo'....

cheers

[rjb]

It's turning into an interesting race and only 2 days gone. I missed the kangaroo chicken, I've booked marked that expression for future use along with the p. Fairies.
When I was racing in my youth I always remember someone telling me that there was always 39 hard luck stories at the finish.

[Brucey]

Another cold, damp and fairly miserable day in the race today, with a stage that was always likely to produce a bunch sprint. Sam Bennett did the business and won by a clear bike length. Possibly his performance is flattered by the calibre of the sprinters in this race, possibly not. Anyway its too bad he's in the same team as Peter Sagan, which means he's not due to ride the TdeF.

Dylan Teuns remains in yellow and he is sounding vaguely positive about keeping it through tomorrow's TT stage. But the top ten on GC is spread over just 24 seconds and there is plenty of TT talent breathing down his neck. 28km with just one significant climb, it ought to be long enough to allow some fairly significant time gaps to open up.

cheers

[rjb]

They were talking up the chances for Andre Greipel at the start of the coverage today, he was nowhere to be seen in the sprint, is he now past it like cav? Theres a new sprint order beginning to establish itself, Bennett, Groenewegen, Viviani to name 3

[Brucey]

Greipel is about to turn 37; there's not many sprinters who can still perform at the top level at that age. Lotto-Soudal effectively ditched him and it is Caleb Ewan who gets the benefit of the lotto-soudal leadout machine now. It seems to be working too; two stages at the giro is a pretty good result for Ewan who could be the coming man; we shall see at the TdeF. Greipel's current team may not have the firepower to get him where he needs to be, even if the man himself is on good form.

Yes the world of sprinting is ever on the change...Cav's had a nasty virus (one which some folk never fully recover from), Kittel has effectively retired (early)…. and so on. It'll be interesting to see if one man is dominant at the TdeF.

cheers

[thirdcrank]

... They were talking up the chances ...

Pundits in many forms of sport are a major cause of global warming and climate change.

[rjb]

Pundits in many forms of sport are a major cause of global warming and climate change.

You've made my day

[Spinners]

Froome is out - hit the deck on a recce. Not sure whether he'll be OK for the TdF.

[mattheus]

Froome? Out due to unforced error?? You don't say ...

[geocycle]

Froome is out - hit the deck on a recce. Not sure whether he'll be OK for the TdF.

Broken femur, out of tour. Could be out for a long time according to Brailsford.

[mattheus]

Bu99er - wouldn't wish that on anyone

I'm no fan TBH, and I'd like to see GT get a fair crack at defending his one GT title "froome dog" has enough yellow jerseys for his living room wall already!

Will sk... INEOS take 2 serious contenders to the tour again? I imagine Egan is champing at the bit now.

[Brucey]

Bad luck for Froome, that. He had a reasonable chance of a fifth tour win, but not now, not this year, and in the longer view his best years must be running short now. I wish him a speedy recovery. GT and Bernal will have a better chance in the TdF now, so Froome's loss is of course another's gain.

In the meantime the CdD goes on; today's time trial was enough to upset the applecart and as expected there were winners and losers. Van Aert's stage-winning ride was phenomenal; he beat van Garderen and Du Moulin which are big scalps to take. Here's a young rider that can sprint and time trial, a name to watch for sure; Van Aert certainly wasn't expecting to win today, he looked as if he'd been weeping before he took the podium, even though he'd already sat for long enough in the hot seat to get used to the idea.

To win the yellow jersey any of the top GC riders at least needed to ride faster than those they finished with in the 'mini-classic' stage a few days ago. Adam Yates rode superbly -by any standards let alone by comparison with other climbers- and got 6th on the stage. Buchmann and Kruijswijk finished just ahead of him on the stage but were denied the yellow jersey by their greater losses a couple of days ago, as were the top three on the stage also. Thus Adam Yates is in yellow (edging Teuns, who must be gutted, out of it by just four seconds) , and most of the other GC rivals lost time to him on the stage, some by enough to put them well out of contention. There are still a dozen riders within a minute of Yates on GC and about twenty riders within two minutes, so it is all to play for.

Tomorrow's stage is a long one without much climbing that seems destined to end in a sprint; a last roll of the dice for those who don't expect to compete in the climbs. Following that there are three days in the mountains which will surely shape the outcome of the race; about half those in the top twenty on GC are noted climbers; with slim margins and time bonuses on offer, anything could happen yet, but it will be happening without Froome. It'll be interesting to see what Ineos will do now, for example if Wout Poels will ride for stage wins or indeed GC; he rode a good TT himself today and is easily his team's best placed rider , 11th spot on GC just 40s off the lead.

cheers

[Brucey]

despite the technical lead-in to the finish, today's stage ended with a bunch sprint as expected. The big surprise was that Wout Van Aert was once again the fastest; he 'surfed' his way into position and finished clear of his opponents. He was just faster than the others; its got to be slightly depressing for the specialist sprinters in his wake.

Van Aert is now in fifth place, ahead of his team leader, only 20s off the lead. The race will be decided over the next few days. It'll be interesting to see if Wout Poels can step up.

In other news Froome has just been awarded the 2011 Vuelta; Cobo's win has been taken away from him retrospectively due to anomalies in his biological passport. This poses an almost endless chain of 'what if?' speculation. Very odd, and it isn't entirely clear if it is good for cycling or not; if there is too much of this retrospective action, folk may end up being reluctant to applaud a victory.... it could all be changed later....

cheers

[Brucey]

Imagine riding in wind, rain, up and down mountains for 213km, crossing the finishing line, and then...…

doing another 16km, about half of it climbing. D'oh!

Well that was the layout of the stage today; a finishing loop based around St Michel de Maurienne. There are two hard stages (shorter with more climbing) after this one so there might be a bold GC move here but more likely not; most of the GC teams have a rider within striking distance of the lead so taking the leader's jersey now might just empty your tank whilst setting yourself up as a target in the remaining stages.

Before the stage start, Dan Martin - and presumably others- thought it likely that a break would go and stay away, whilst the GC candidates would mark one another out, keeping their powder dry as it were. And that's how it panned out. Julien Alaphilippe, (deliberately?) out of GC contention, Muhlberger, and de Marchi went and stayed away, with Alaphilippe as expected winning the stage, and taking the polkadot jersey. This is basically a dress rehearsal for how Alaphilippe plans to ride in the TdeF; his goal is probably the polkadot jersey there, too.

But Alaphilippe only just edged Muhlberger out in the sprint, you could almost hear his pips squeak, as it were. And whilst the break appeared to ride hard on the finishing circuit, the peloton rode a harder tempo behind; they pulled back about five minutes in the last 16km or so. The hard pace did little more than expose those GC candidates with the weaker teams for now; the only GC change was that Van Aert dropped out of the top ten; today he worked for his team leader and (as instructed, presumably) lost a chunk of time on GC. This could allow him to play a pivotal role in the remaining part of the race; he'll be allowed to go up the road in a break, but can ally with Kruijswijk should he bridge the gap. This role is only possible if he is not himself perceived to be a GC threat.

Ineos seem to be working for Wout Poels; a field promotion to 'captain' if you like. It is still anyone's race; tomorrow there are three 1er cat climbs followed by an almost unknown (hors category) climb of 19km up the Montee de Pipay to finish. All in just 133km: Game On!

cheers