Dauphiné Breakdown: The First 4 Levels and the Tour Implications

Key Takeaways: Spencer Martin is breaking down how the primary 4 levels of the Critérium du Dauphiné had been received, and what the subsequent 4 levels can inform us concerning the upcoming Tour de France.

– This text is an excerpt from the Past the Peloton publication. Enroll right here for full entry. –

Jonas Vingegaard coming into kind?

It would look like the Giro d’Italia simply wrapped up, however the Critérium Du Dauphiné, an eight-stage race via the Dauphiné area within the southeast of France and a conventional Tour de France warmup race, has begun this week, which implies we’re formally in Tour de France hypothesis season.

Thus far, the race has featured largely muted motion via its opening three levels, with the most important general contenders, a lot of them additionally contenders for the upcoming Tour de France, sitting again whereas the levels are contested by the fastmen. However, whereas there hasn’t been vital motion from the primary GC contenders because of the flat-to-rolling parcours and harder profiles saved for the latter half of the week, we now have seen three attention-grabbing sprints with loads of intriguing subplots, and are arrange for an thrilling GC battle, which begins in earnest tomorrow with a difficult 31-kilometer time trial.

Present GC Prime Three
1) Mikkel Bjerg +0
2) Jonas Vingegaard +12
3) Fred Wright +34

Mikkel Bjerg is now within the general lead

Dauphiné Levels 1-4 Pocket book:

Stage 1
11.1km: The early breakaway is almost caught on the high of the ultimate climb earlier than descending right down to the end. Rune Herregodts makes what seems to be a pointless assault simply earlier than the descent.

2.5km: Nevertheless, because of the tough moist descent, the assault seems to be an extremely good transfer. By the underside, Herregodts has elevated his hole out to 14 seconds, whereas the peloton has damaged up behind.

400m: Herregodts seems to have an opportunity at stealing the stage as they enter the ultimate straight. Behind, Jumbo is utilizing up the final of their domestiques trying to maintain the tempo excessive within the extraordinarily diminished peloton.

100m: With Herregodts dangling, however nonetheless showing to have an opportunity, Laporte opens up his dash behind and begins to shut the hole extremely quick.

End: Laporte expertly closes the hole and overtakes Herregodts proper earlier than the end line.

Stage 1 Prime Three
1) Christophe Laprote +0
2) Matteo Trentin +0
3) Rune Herregodts +0.

Stage 1 to Christophe Laporte

Stage 2
800m: With Jumbo on the entrance within the barely uphill ultimate km, an EF rider takes a flier, which has the impact of placing stress on Jumbo to proceed setting tempo.

200m: After his teammates are caught, EF’s Richard Carapaz launches his dash early in an effort to catch the others off-guard and construct up an preliminary buffer. Alaphilippe senses this coming and instantly jumps on his wheel.

150m: If we freeze body this, we are able to see Laporte is sprinting, however consuming tons of wind, whereas Alaphilippe, who has chosen the precise path, will get a comparatively free journey in Carapaz’s draft.

50m: As soon as Alaphilippe opens up his dash to come back round Carapaz, he builds up an insurmountable hole, and the race is over.

End: Alaphilippe feels so snug together with his lead that he sits as much as have a good time regardless of having a number of victories stolen from him on the line because of this. Carapaz holds on for second and picks up some key time bonus seconds, whereas Laporte misses out on the rostrum to Trek’s Natnael Tesfatsion because of his poor positioning.

Stage 2 Prime Three
1) Julian Alaphilippe +0
2) Richard Carapaz +0
3) Natnael Tesfatsion +0

A welcome return for Julian Alaphilippe

Stage 3
2.3km: On the ultimate run-in, after Alaphilippe has been dominated out because of what appeared to endure a number of mechanical points and flat tires, Jumbo is burning their leadout complete leadout early with a purpose to get Laporte via a decent left-hand flip in a superb place.

400m: This calculated transfer will get Laporte via the chaos within the entrance group, however it additionally means he’s remoted and out of place in direction of the again when Bora opens up the ultimate dash for Sam Bennett.

150m: Laporte, because of uncooked energy, and a bit of little bit of luck that Sam Bennett takes the whole group over to the precise barrier whereas trying to dam Dylan Groenewegen from coming round, is ready to transfer up from the again of the group after the street opens up in entrance of him. His pace relative to the others is considerably surprising.

End: Laporte surges by a fading Bennett and holds off Groenewegen, who was compelled to brake to keep away from crashing with Bennett, to get a formidable dash win.

Stage 3 Prime Three
1) Christophe Laporte +0
2) Matteo Trentin +0
3) Milan Menten +0

Laporte once more on stage 3

Stage 4
With a troublesome 31-kilometer time trial on faucet right now on the Critérium du Dauphiné, the GC contenders had been lastly compelled to point out their playing cards. Whereas standard knowledge urged defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard would open a big margin between himself and the sector of contenders, not many would have anticipated the younger Dane, Mikkel Bjerg, to smash the sector through a superbly executed pacing technique, to win the stage and take the general lead from Jumbo-Visma’s Christophe Laporte.

Whereas Vingegaard didn’t win the stage and/or take the general lead, he nonetheless put a large margin between himself and the remainder of the GC contenders, each positioning himself effectively to take general victory and signaling that he’s on tempo to pose an extremely troublesome problem for Tadej Pogačar (and doubtlessly Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič) on the upcoming Tour de France.

Stage Prime Three
1) Mikkel Bjerg +0
2) Jonas Vingegaard +12
3) Rémi Cavagna +27

Present GC Prime Three
1) Mikkel Bjerg +0
2) Jonas Vingegaard +12
3) Fred Wright +34

Filtered GC Standings
Jonas Vingegaard +0
Ben O’Connor +29
Adam Yates +45
Dani Martinez +55
Jai Hindley +56
Jack Haig +1’03
Matteo Jorgenson +1’25
Carlos Rodríguez +1’48
Richard Carapaz +2’21
David Gaudu +2’22
Egan Bernal +2’25
Enric Mas +2’43
Mikel Landa +3’11

Mikkel Bjerg took the TT stage and general

Stage 4 Race Pocket book:

David Gaudu: The nice French hope for the upcoming Tour de France falls aside within the ultimate few kilometers of the stage after a powerful begin. Creeping over the road almost two minutes behind the day’s quickest time as much as that time isn’t what you wish to see just some weeks out from the Tour.

Mikkel Bjerg: The massive Dane on UAE, after conservative pacing via the opening half of the race, powers into the ultimate kilometer wanting extremely sturdy and like a risk to beat Cavagna’s time.

Bjerg crosses the road a formidable 27 seconds forward of Cavagna, and the truth that he seems so highly effective via the powerful ultimate stretch makes it seem as if it will likely be powerful for anybody to beat his time.

Jai Hindley: The previous Giro winner, who’s concentrating on the Tour this season, is much from a TT specialist, however crosses the road with a formidable time. This journey indicators he might be an outsider to observe later this summer season.

Ben O’Connor: The Australian, who completed 4th on the 2021 Tour de France, additionally places in a formidable journey and indicators he’s on tempo for a powerful journey on the Tour.

Jonas Vingegaard: The pre-stage favourite for the win is the one rider to get near Bjerg’s time, however, after pacing onerous via the primary half, he suffers a slight regression within the final third of the course and finishes 12 seconds down. It means he doesn’t get the stage win or the race lead, however the sturdy journey, which distanced each different GC contender, does set him up properly for the general victory.

Key Takeaways:

1) Mikkel Bjerg will get his first profession professional win with an ideal pacing technique

• The 24-year-old Dane on UAE breaks via with a large, and his first since turning professional, victory, which additionally nets him race management in one of the crucial prestigious one-week races on the calendar. Whereas he received 3x U23 World TT titles, there’s a large gulf between successful main races at an under-23 stage and a top-tier skilled stage.
• Despite the fact that he’s nearly sure to lose the race lead over the powerful terrain lurking this weekend, this spectacular journey reveals simply how a lot expertise and uncooked energy Bjerg possesses, and teases what he might be able to in main one-day races down the road.
• This journey additionally doubtless secures his place within the UAE Tour de France workforce as a key domestique for Tadej Pogačar.
• Essentially the most spectacular a part of Bjerg’s victory was his pacing. After going out with a reasonably reserved tempo and hitting the primary time test in eighth place, he slowly elevated his tempo and scorched the marginally uphill ultimate 12 kilometers.
• This glorious pacing noticed him take again 32 seconds into Vingegaard over simply the ultimate 21 kilometers of racing after giving up 20 seconds to him over the opening 10 kilometers.

Vingegaard was shut

2) Jonas Vingegaard confirmed he’s on tempo to place up a powerful Tour de France title protection

• The defending Tour de France champion received’t be blissful to have missed out on the stage win, and chief’s jersey, to Bjerg, however this journey, the place he roasted his GC competitors regardless of poor pacing via the primary part of the race, could have him and his Jumbo workforce feeling excellent about his probabilities of defending his Tour title subsequent month.
• For reference, in final 12 months’s Dauphiné, the place Vingegaard took second general behind his teammate Primož Roglič, earlier than happening to win the Tour, he completed seventh within the time trial, 1’12 behind the stage winner (Filippo Ganna). The truth that he’s on even higher kind on the identical cut-off date this season is a significant indicator that he might be extremely powerful to beat in July.

Adam Yates misplaced 45 seconds

3) The remainder of the Tour de France GC contenders right here on the Dauphiné have their work lower out for them

• Outdoors of Bjerg, Vingegaard, and some sturdy rides from exterior GC contenders like Ben O’Connor, Adam Yates, and Dani Martinez, the stage ought to have set off alarms for Tour GC hopefuls like David Gaudu, Egan Bernal, Richard Carapaz, and Enric Mas.
• Stage GC Time Gaps
  Jonas Vingegaard +0
  Ben O’Connor +29 (misplaced .93 s/km)
  Adam Yates +45 (misplaced 1.4s/km)
  Dani Martinez +55 (misplaced 1.77s/km)
  Jai Hindley +56 (misplaced 1.8s/km)
  Jack Haig +1’03 (misplaced 2.02s/km)
  Matteo Jorgenson +1’25 (misplaced 2.73s/km)
  Carlos Rodríguez +1’48 (misplaced 3.5s/km)
  David Gaudu +2’22 (misplaced 4.6s/km)
  Egan Bernal +2’25 (misplaced 4.7s/km)
  Richard Carapaz +2’27 (misplaced 4.72s/km)
  Enric Mas +2’28 (misplaced 4.8s/km)
  Mikel Landa +2’49 (misplaced 5.4s/km)
• The truth that all 4 misplaced greater than 4.5 seconds per kilometer means they may basically be uncompetitive relating to competing for the win on the Tour.
• Even with the 2023 Tour de France solely that includes 21 kilometers of time trialing, 10kms lower than right now, and having an uphill ultimate 2.7 kms of the TT, the course is just like right now’s, which implies riders like Pogačar and Vingegaard can count on to take 60-90 seconds, at a minimal, on these riders based mostly on their s/km deficits right now. This can be a main downside once we contemplate that making time good points exterior of the time trial on the Tour de France is extraordinarily troublesome.
• The largest concern for these 4 riders is that their worst-performing phase of the race was the ultimate 11.5km, which was uphill. That is the place you’d count on these lighter, climbing-specific riders to be near an equal stage to Vingegaard. However, as a substitute, they surrendered large quantities of time. These struggles are one thing to bear in mind once we get to the stage 16 time trial on the Tour de France, which has a big uphill part to complete the stage.
• Time Misplaced on Uphill Last 11.5kms
  Bernal misplaced 1’07
  Gaudu misplaced 1’17
  Carapaz misplaced 1’28
  Mas misplaced 1’35

It has been a superb Dauphine for Laporte

Key Takeaways

1) Christophe Laporte is a bonafide star

• When Jumbo picked up the veteran Frenchman from Cofidis previous to the 2022 season, it was seen as a nice-to-have addition that would bolster their Classics and grand tour help squads.
• However, flash ahead two years, and Laporte is presently Jumbo’s second-highest PCS factors scorer, and third-highest within the workforce’s victory rankings, behind Roglič and Vingegaard and forward of Van Aert.
• Additionally, to date in 2023, he has racked up 4 WorldTour victories and received two main Spring Classics (Gent–Wevelgem & Dwars door Vlaanderen).
• And, to date at this Dauphiné, he has been unbelievable, with two stage wins, one in all them coming in a flat dash end.
• Evaluate this to Van Aert, who had two stage wins eventually 12 months’s version. Whereas nobody would argue Laporte is extra proficient, and even higher than Van Aert, once we examine their precise outcomes (Van Aert has 10 wins for the reason that begin of the 2022 season whereas Laporte has 9), they’re much nearer to friends than anybody initially anticipated when Laporte joined the workforce.
• An attention-grabbing thought experiment is to think about if this model of Laporte could be able to mounting a viable Classics, and Tour de France Inexperienced jersey, problem to Van Aert if he had free rein on a well-run workforce the place he was the only stage-hunting chief.

Is that this a reborn Alaphilippe?

2) Julian Alaphilippe answered criticism from inside his personal workforce with a stage win, however core points nonetheless stay

• The 30-year-old double World Champion has been underneath fireplace from his QuickStep workforce supervisor for his excessive wage and lack of main outcomes over the previous few seasons.
• However, in what gave the impression to be a direct response to this criticism, he confirmed together with his dash win on stage 2 that he nonetheless has what it takes to problem for wins on the largest races.
• Whereas a stage win or two at this upcoming Tour de France actually nonetheless appears to be on the desk for the animated rider, his win-rate dropoff is simple, and he went again to displaying the erratic on-bike habits that has triggered him to endure from so many crashes and accidents on stage 3.
• Even counting his win on stage 2, he solely has two WorldTour wins during the last 24 months, and 12 wins over the previous 4 seasons (2.75 wins per season.
• Evaluate this to his 24 wins within the 2019 and 2018 seasons (11 wins per season), and you may see an simple dropoff in his means to transform wins, and, consequently, command a big wage from his workforce.
• Additionally, one other concern is that all through right now’s stage, Alaphilippe gave the impression to be again within the race caravan for overly-long intervals of time and always appeared uncomfortable on, or with, his bike. That is vital since this kind of jumpy/distracted habits from Alaphilippe tends to be a bodily manifestation of some form of lurking bigger challenge.

The massive sprinters haven’t had it their very own method

3) Fashionable racing tendencies are lowering alternatives for the standard sprinter

• Thus far at this Dauphiné, conventional bunch sprinters have zero wins via the three, solely potential dash levels of the 8-stage race.
• This challenge, the place they’re both being outclimbed by smaller riders like Alaphilippe on powerful finishes or straight-up outkicked by extra versatile riders like Laporte on flat levels, highlights simply how a lot specialists are being ironed out of the largest races on the calendar as wins have gotten an increasing number of consolidated with the very best all-around riders.
• There’ll all the time be room for the very best sprinters on the handful of true dash levels throughout grand excursions, however, the window of alternative for anybody however the easiest is getting smaller and smaller with each passing season.

Carapaz had a nasty time trial

4) The early GC gaps may find yourself taking part in a big position within the ultimate standings

• The opening three levels of this race have been nearly fully devoid of any terrain, or attention-grabbing racing, that may usually open up GC gaps and provides us a have a look at who’s on kind and who isn’t.
• Nevertheless, via these three days of pretty uneventful racing, there are already some surprisingly vital time gaps amongst the highest contenders.
Filtered GC Standings Levels 1-3
Carapaz +0
Vingegaard +6
Yates +6
Mas +21
Landa +28
• Whereas the most important contenders, like Vingegaard, are behind Carapaz by six seconds because of Carapaz’s spectacular dash to take second place, and time bonus seconds, on stage two, Enric Mas and Mikel Landa misplaced vital time on the wt descent to the end again on stage one.
• In a race the place the typical margin of victory during the last 5 seasons is simply 22-seconds, these are vital gaps, and present why Mas and Landa, who each are likely to wrestle on tough descents, each of whom have zero vital GC victories (grand tour or top-seven one-week stage race) will proceed to wrestle to win stage races.

The place is Mas?

5) The subsequent 4 levels will inform us rather a lot about the primary GC contenders for the upcoming Tour de France

• Outdoors of those ultimate few kilometers of every stage, the racing motion has been pretty muted to date at this Dauphiné. This may all change on the 4 powerful street levels via Sunday.
• This powerful terrain and racing will determine the ultimate general winner, however may also give us key clues as to who’s on monitor for the upcoming Tour de France.
• Issues of explicit curiosity to me:
• 1) Simply how good is Jonas Vingegaard proper now and is he on monitor to defend his Tour de France title?
• 2) Has Richard Carapaz turned his kind round to a degree the place he can realistically problem for an general podium on the 2023 Tour de France, or is he nonetheless struggling to seek out his finest kind and be relegated to stage looking?
• 3) After a powerful begin to the 2023 season, Enric Mas appeared to take a slight step again in his most up-to-date race appearances. Is he again to a stage that can permit him to compete with the highest GC contenders on the Tour?
• 4) After a rocky run since his crash, is Egan Bernal again to a stage the place he can grasp with the entrance group on powerful mountain levels?

How will the subsequent 4 Dauphiné levels go for Vingegaard?

# Spencer Martin is the creator of the cycling-analysis publication Past the Peloton that breaks down the nuances of every race and solutions massive image questions surrounding workforce and rider efficiency. Enroll now to get full entry to all of the out there content material and race breakdowns. #