The picture that we have to paint for Bauke Mollema in 2017 is quite different to the one we painted back in 2014. The Dutch came from winning the Tour de France in 2012 and the Vuelta a España in 2013 and looked set to dominate the Grand Tours for years to come. However, that prediction did not turn out to be true. Actually, 2014 was the last time when he mounted a campaign to win a Grand Tour as he came 2nd in the Tour de France to Tejay van Garderen. His best results in Grand Tours since then were the two 7th places he grabbed in 2015 both in the Giro and the Tour.
On the other hand, he has been able to win stage races in the period since we last wrote about him. He won the Tirreno - Adriatico in 2014 and took the Tour de Romandie twice, in 2015 and 2016. This gives an idea of how good Mollema is. There are many other good riders in the peloton that would only dream of winning 3 stages races in 3 years. Mollema has done it in years when his performances have been on the downside. However, 2017 has been even worse for the Dutch and in Switzerland he only managed to get a 5th position in the GC. This gives him few hopes of doing a good job in his targets later in the season.
Mollema is skipping the Criterium du Daupihne to tackle the Tour de Suisse ahead of his clear target for the year: the Tour de France. The number of time trial kilometers in the Tour should give him an edge over other riders that have proven to be better climbers than him in the last few years. The lack of time trials in other races has particularly hurt him. The Giro is a clear proof of this, given that his best result is still the 5th position he got in 2011, the year he signed for Vacansoleil. It has been a long time for Mollema with the Dutch team as this is his 7th season.
Vacansoleil just renewed the contract of Mollema at the end of last season and he signed for 3 years so it means that he will be 35 when the contract ends. It is a big risk on the part of the team given that Mollema's results are clearly worse as the years go by. They are spending a big chunk of their budget on a rider on the downhill and that could drag the team down in the next few years. The start of the year that the team had must have worried the managers but surely the win in the Amstel Gold Race by Philippe Gilbert gave them a bit more confidence.
The second stage of the Criterium du Dauphine is classified as flat but it is a bit doubtful that is the case. The first part of the stage has no difficulties but the last 60 kilometers are a continuous up and down the hills, mainly with two 2nd category climbs: the Cote de Communal and the Col du Sentier. Therefore, a mass sprint is not expected at the finish line in Oyonnax and we have even seen solo attacks making it all the way to the finish line as the 10 kilometers from the Col du Sentier to Oyonnax are all downhill.
The first attack of the stage was the one that was successful as not many riders seemed keen to attack. The group of 4 was formed by Michal Kwiatkowski (FDJ), Ramunas Navardauskas (IAM), Maxime Vantomme (Vacansoleil) and Zdenek Stybar (Euskaltel). They got to the Cote de Mornex, the first categorized climb of the day, with a gap of 6' 30'' over the bunch. Movistar, LottoNL and Cannondale were the teams setting up the pace in the peloton as Trek was not too worried about the break. The 4 riders ahead had all lost much time yesterday and were not a threat in the GC.
The second climb of the day, the Cote de Lancrans, was placed 53 kilometers from the finish line. Stefano Garzelli (Movistar) was leading the bunch followed by Pablo Lastras (Movistar) and Moreno Hofland (LottoNL) at the KoM sprint. The gap for the break had started to come down quite fast and was down to 3' 40'' at that stage. However, the pace of the peloton was not that fast yet and there were no riders suffering at the back. Nevertheless, the last 60 kilometers were a continuous up and down the hills and it would be painful for some.
The Cote de Communal was tackled almost straight after the Cote de Lancrans. It was the toughest climb of the day but the break riders were maintaining their gap more or less well and the gap was still 2' 55'' at the top. They had on interest on the KoM points as the points awarded today would not allow them to take over the jersey. Meanwhile, Movistar was still doing most of the chasing but the pace was not as hard as to make many riders suffer at the back of the group. The stage was not as hard as it could be given the terrain available.
The stage had many climb in the last kilometers and the next one was the Cote de Bugnon, 22 kilometers from the finish line. However, none of the riders in the peloton was willing to risk an attack to go for the stage win. Movistar was still controlling the pack and it was Samuel Sanchez's (Movistar) turn at the front as they crossed the KoM sprint at the top. The pace was not too high but there were riders dropping from the back of the group. The gap of the early break was still 1' 15'' but it looked like the bunch would have time to bring them back in time.
The Col du Sentier was a different story. It was only 2.8 kilometers long but with an average gradient of 7.1%. The break was caught halfway through the climb and Jurgen van den Broeck (Cannondale) got to the front of the pack to pick up the pace. He was followed by Emanuele Sella (Movistar) and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL) at the top. It looked like the pace in the last climb had hurt many of the sprinters but there were no obvious breaks in the peloton and we could still witness a mass sprint in Oyonnax if some of the quick riders can recover the positioning in the group.
Steven Kruijswijk was taking Simone Ponzi (LottoNL) in a perfect position towards the sprint in Oyonnax. The Dutch took the lead in the descent of the Col du Sentier and has not let the pace come down so that other fast riders cannot come forward. Actually, a group lost contact at the top of the climb including riders like Tom Boonen (BMC), Paul Martens (HTC) and Peter Sagan (Sky). Meanwhile, the riders closest to the front in the peloton were Stefan Schumacher (HTC), Robert Kiserlovski (Discovery) and Sergey Chernetskiy (Vacansoleil). Tony Gallopin (IAM) was the only other fast rider among the first 20 riders in the descent.
Steven Kruijswijk did a very good job for Simone Ponzi but the Italian was taking a very long time to start the sprint and with 700 meters to go he had already been overtaken by Stefan Schumacher and Sergey Chernetskiy. The Italian was the clear favorite for the win in the group but he did not seem to have the legs to make a move. Meanwhile, other riders like Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) and Rui Costa (Ag2r), who are also quite fast in this kind of stage, were getting threateningly close to the front. It should have been an easy one for Ponzi but it was difficult to say at this stage.
Rui Costa wins in Oyonnax! It was clearly a tougher stage than what it looked like and Rui Costa managed to get past many riders that were supposedly much better sprinters than him to get his 2nd win of the year. The Portuguese did not appear close to the front of the group until the last 500 meters of the stage, more than enough to grab the stage. Sergey Chernetskiy took the second place in the stage ahead of Davide Rebellin (Astana). Meanwhile, other supposedly faster riders like Jelle Vanendert and Simone Ponzi completed the top 5.
The stage was a bit less interesting than expected as there were no attacks in the group of the favorites even though there was enough terrain in the last kilometers of the stage. Nevertheless, the front group only had 75 riders at the finish line. The team that performed worst was clearly Movistar. They controlled the stage for many kilometers for Matthew Goss (Movistar) but the Australian got dropped in the last climb and even though the whole team waited for him they ended up losing 2 minutes at the finish line. Emanuele Sella was clearly not fighting for the GC as the time trial is too long for him.
The third stage of the Criterium du Dauphine is relatively similar to the second. The route is relatively flat for the first half of the stage but that changes in the last 60 kilometers as the riders have to tackle the Col des Echarmeaux and the Col des Sauvages. The last climb's top is only 9 kilometers from the finish line in Tarare so any attack in the climb has a good chance of making it to the finish line. Even a few seconds might be enough to get a few valuable seconds. A win by the early break cannot be discarded either as maybe no team is willing to control the stage.
The fight for the early break was again nonexistent, same as yesterday. The group of 4 that got awat was formed by Enrico Gasparotto (Etixx), Mikel Landa (Discovery), Cyril Gautier (FDJ) and Luke Durbridge (Cofidis). They slowly built a gap and with 106 kilometers to go they already had 6 minutes over the bunch. None of them was dangerous in the GC so Trek had no interest in chasing at all. Movistar and Cannondale were the teams setting a pace but it was quite easy for all the riders in the bunch. The flat terrain made it easy for the peloton.
Trek was controlling the race for the first time as they climbed the Col des Echarmeaux. LottoNL also appeared close to the front to work on the chase a little bit. Tejay van Garderen (Trek) is the leader but he has not been threatened yet by anyone in the breaks so far. The gap for the front group was 2' 50''. The climb was not too hard but it was used by the group to cut the gap considerably. Nevertheless, there were no riders suffering at the back of the group and the favorites were quite comfortable.
The intermediate sprint was placed in Cublize, 25 kilometers from the finish line. Enrico Gasparotto attacked followed by Cyril Gautier as the peloton was getting very close to catching them. Movistar had taken over the chase in the favorable terrain from the Col des Echarmeaux with a bit of help from LottoNL. Matthew Goss (Movistar) was faster than Simone Ponzi (LottoNL) in the sprint of the group. They were very close to catching the break but the peloton might lift the pace after the sprint as they may not want to catch them too early.
The break got to the start of the climb to the Col des Sauvages with 45 seconds over the bunch, which seemed not enough for a climb with an average of 5.6%. Emanuele Sella (Movistar), Stefano Garzelli (Movistar) and Tom Dumoulin (Cannondale) were leading the main bunch. With Sella at the front it was going to be hard to attack for other favorites. It will be interesting to see whether the sprinters are able to handle the climb and whether there are any attacks. It should be a good day for Simone Ponzi but he failed yesterday in a similar stage.
Emanuele Sella worked very hard in the climb and he managed to bring back the early break. His pace was followed by Chris Froome (Lampre) and it was so hard that he dragged only 4 other riders with him: Sella, David Lopez (Euskaltel), Enrico Gasparotto and Simone Ponzi. They had 20 seconds over the bunch at the top of the climb. With only 9 downhill kilometers it might even be enough to get to the finish line. Clearly the pace in the climb was quite hard and that would have hurt the options of the purest sprinters, even though there are not many in the race.
The group of 5 that had a small gap at the top of the Col des Sauvages was caught with around 5 kilometers to go. There was not much of an understanding between them to collaborate in the parts of the descent that required work from the riders. With 3 kilometers to go Zdenek Stybar (Euskaltel) was keeping David Lopez close to the front of the peloton. Among other riders close to the front we could also see Emanuele Sella, Chris Froome and Arthur Vichot (Ag2r). However, none of them was really fast in a sprint but a bit behind we could see Simone Ponzi, Peter Sagan (Sky) and Matthew Goss (Movistar).
There was no team trying to control the group and Peter Sagan tried to surprise the rest of the bunch with an attack at the 2 kilometers mark. The Slovakian had a tiny gap of 4 seconds with 700 meters to go over a group were the final sprint had started. Simone Ponzi was leading the sprint ahead of a very combative Sergey Chernetskiy (Vacansoleil). Other riders were also joining the final sprint in a very chaotic final, including Luca Mezgec (LottoNL), Robert Gesink (Ag2r) and Stefan Schumacher (HTC). These sprints after a climb were very difficult to predict beforehand.
Simone Ponzi wins in Tarare! Peter Sagan did a very good attack but he could not hold off the peloton and he was caught and left behind by the top sprinters. Ponzi did not have a good day yesterday, when he was supposed to do a good job but he could not deliver. His performance today was completely different and he clearly dominated the sprint and he did not have a rival fast enough to fight him. The second place went to a surprising Stefan Schumacher. The German has been improving quite a bit in the last few years and is quite good in the hills stages.
Meanwhile, it was climbers who took the rest of the top places in the stage as Hubert Dupont was 3rd ahead of Robert Gesink and Chris Froome. It was clearly way too hard a final climb for the sprinters to recover in time to fight for the final sprint in Tarare. This kind of stage is over in the Criterium du Dauphine as tomorrow the spotlight will be on the riders that are fighting for the GC. There is a 33 kilometers long time trial in Villars-les-Dombes that should open significant differences in the GC. It is a good test for the Tour de France as there are long time trials this year in the Grand Tour.
The fourth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine is one of the key stages in the race. The circular time trial between Villars-les-Dombes and the Parc des Oiseaux is 33 kilometers long and completely flat, which makes it perfect for the specialists. The differences that riders like David Millar and Tony Martin are supposed to put on the rest of the riders are quite big and Martin already won the Tour de Romandie thanks to the time trials. There was a bit of wind in the morning that is supposed to stay for the duration of the time trial and it could make a difference if the intensity changes.
The first of the favorites was David Millar (HTC). The British had lost some time in the previous stages so he should not be a threat in the GC. Nevertheless, he was keen to take his second win of the season after winning the last stage of the Tirreno - Adriatico. Levi Leipheimer (Trek) had set the early pace but the American was nowhere near to the time set by Millar as the HTC rider took over the provisional lead at the finish line with a gap of 1' 17'' over Leipheimer. Millar's time was only slightly above 44 minutes and would be hard to beat.
Tony Martin (Lotto) arrived in the Criterium du Dauphine for his first race after taking the win in the Tour de Romandie 1 month ago. The German won the race by destroying everyone else in the time trials and he was set to do the same in Villars-les-Dombes. The German clearly beat his main rival for the win, David Millar, by a margin of 31 seconds. This suggests that his time was going to be really difficult to beat by the rest of the favorites. The fact that he did not lose time in the previous stages means that he could well be the leader after the stage.
Marco Pinotti (Sky) was 18th in the GC before the start of the day but only 5 seconds from the leader. The Italian was among the outsiders for the win in the time trial and Sky would be keen on taking a win. However, even though his performance was good he could only take the 3rd provisional time, 1' 40'' behind Tony Martin. Even if the gap with Martin is quite big, this result should put Pinotti on track to battle for the final podium of the Dauphine. He is surely looking to improve on his 5th position in the Tirreno - Adriatico this year.
Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery) was the winner of last year's Criterium du Dauphine and won the ITT European Championship 2 years ago, so he can time trial at a pretty good level. However, he was not even close to getting among the top riders today as he clocked the 10th provisional time, 2' 17'' behind Tony Martin. The gap to Martin can be a bit misleading as to the relative performance of the GC favorites but Peraud also lost 37 seconds against Marco Pinotti, who should be a close match to what Peraud could have done.
Jerome Coppel (Etixx) already took the win in a time trial this year, the last stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. However, it was a very different route with a couple of climbs. That took him to the final 4th place in the GC of the Spanish race. Nevertheless, he should have done much better than the 11th provisional time that he posted, 2' 19'' behind Martin. This was a very similar result to the one that Peraud got. The problem for Coppel is that this result will not give him a lot of confidence when facing the mountains as there should be many riders stronger than him in that terrain.
Euskaltel is mainly built around David Lopez (Euskaltel) for the stage races but this year Hubert Dupont (Euskaltel) has been quite strong, taking good results in all the stage races. He won the Volta a Catalunya after Lopez crashed and was out of contention for the GC. He also started the Criterium du Dauphine in good shape but the time trial was a tad too long for him and he ended up losing 3' 17'' against Tony Martin, which put him in the provisional 34th position when he crossed the finish line. With such a gap the race is going to be a struggle for him from now onwards.
One of the surprises of the Dauphine so far has been the 23-year-old Sergey Chernetskiy (Vacansoleil). The Russian was the winner of the youngsters' classification in the Tirreno - Adriatico and grabbed the 2nd place in Oyonnax, behind Rui Costa. The time trial could have been too hard for him but his performance did not say the same. He lost 2' 34'' against Tony Martin but that was only the 18th position provisionally. That was a lot better than many of the favorites for the GC. Nevertheless, he would lose the white jersey as Peter Velits (Discovery) had done an outstanding time trial and will wear it tomorrow.
It is normally not a good day for Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) when he is faced with a flat time trial that could determine the outcome of a race, especially if it happens before the mountains. The Belgian already won the Fleche Wallonne this season and got podiums in the other Ardennes classics but today was not his best day in the office. He could only record the 73rd provisional time, 4' 02'' behind Tony Martin. This will leave him far behind in the GC and his options of being in the final podium are quite slim. As an example, he will be 2' 19'' behind Marco Pinotti.
Unlike some of the other stage racers, Rui Costa is a very versatile rider that can do a good job in many terrains. This has led him to 2 stage wins so far this year and to a 6th position in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. However, he has a tendency to be a bit inconsistent. His time trial today was rather good for someone that is not a specialist. He stopped the clock with the 11th provisional time and 2' 14'' behind Tony Martin. This means he will be inside the top 10 after the stage and most likely has more options of going up in the GC than down.
The leader before the stage was Tejay van Garderen (Trek), who had taken the win in the first stage. The American is a really good time trialist but in the last years it seems that he has been overtaken on that side by a few riders. Nevertheless, he was good enough to take the 3rd position in today's stage. However, he lost 1' 33'' against Tony Martin, which tells you how strong Martin was today to grab the stage win. Tejay will lose the first place in the GC to the German but he will retain the 2nd place and is in pole position for the GC win at the end of the race.
Tony Martin is again the leader in a stage race but this time it will be a bit more difficult for him as there are 3 mountain stages before the end of the race. On the other hand, Van Garderen has only 12 seconds on Marco Pinotti and 38 seconds over Chris Froome. The British should not be discarded as he is probably the best climber among the top 10 in the GC. Far behind are riders like Robert Gesink, 2' 29'' behind Martin in the GC; Peter Stetina, +3' 21'' or David Lopez, +3' 46''. There are many riders that will need to attack from far out to have a chance to climb in the podium.
I would say that the mountains in the Dauphine are too much for Tony Martin but we will see... He already won in Romandie so I don't know what to expect.
The fifth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine is the first mountain-top finish of the race. It is a stage that is rather short at only 138 kilometers and has no significant difficulties before the final climb. However, the climb to Valmorel is quite hard and features 12.9 kilometers at an average of 6.7%. Therefore, it will be the first of the difficult days for Tony Martin, who will have to work a lot harder than what he did back in the Tour de Romandie. Considering that many riders have a lot of time to recover we should expect a good show in the last kilometers.
The group that made the break of the day was initially not allowed to go easily by the bunch. Among the 8 riders at the front we could find Tiago Machado (Tinkoff), Ben Hermans (Katusha), Stefano Garzelli (Movistar), Jonathan Castroviejo (Lampre) and Anthony Roux (IAM). Machado was especially dangerous as he was 12th in the GC. At the Cote de Trevignin, with 113 kilometers still to go, they had a gap of 2 minutes. The gap with the bunch consolidated in the climb as before that Lotto was not willing to let a break that could be dangerous to go away.
The Col du Frene was only a very tiny hill on the side that was raced today, although on the other side it is quite challenging. Sky and Trek had started to work at the front of the pack as the gap was already 5 minutes with 73 kilometers to go. Michael Valgren (Sky) was the rider leading the group at the top of the climb. Lotto was not in a rush to bring the break back and was letting other teams do the job. Meanwhile, Ben Hermans was the only rider in the break that was interested in the KoM points and he was getting a few, although he was too far from Ruben Plaza (BMC) to take over the lead.
The intermediate sprint was placed in La Bathie, with 31 kilometers to go and at the bottom of the last small climb before the riders tackled the finish in Valmorel. Tiago Machado was the only rider in the break to sprint for the bonus seconds as the others were surely saving energy for the final climb. However, their gap had fallen dramatically in the flat section after the descent of the Col du Frene and was only 2 minutes over the bunch. Nicolo Bonifazio (Trek), Fabio Aru (Trek) and Levi Leipheimer (Trek) were leading the bunch, which proved the commitment that the American team was putting in the chase.
The climb to Valmorel started with Bradley Wiggins (Sky) increasing the pace at the front. He was followed by Rob Ruijgh (Lotto) and Levi Leipheimer. They still had 12 kilometers to go but the pace was quite high from the bottom of the climb. There were groups of riders that were already forgetting about the stage and having a slower ride to the top. It would be a hard day for Tony Martin (Lotto) if the pace was that high during the climb. At the front, Giampaolo Caruso (FDJ) had attacked and had a gap of 10'' over Manuele Boaro (Astana), 35 seconds over the rest of the break and 1' 50'' on the bunch.
With 9 kilometers to go the first serious attacked was launched by Juanjo Cobo (HTC). The Spaniard was probably working for Andrew Talansky (HTC) as the American quickly followed alongside Peter Stetina (BMC). They were already catching riders from the early break, although the lead of the stage was still for Giampaolo Caruso. Nevertheless, the gaps were all very small among the different groups. Rob Ruijgh was again working at the front of the group of the favorites in favor of Tony Martin. It was clear already that the riders that needed much time to recover had to attack from very early in the climb.
As expected in such a short and easy stage the final climb was tackled at quite a high pace. Peter Stetina had been the only rider to maintain a gap among those that attacked previously but with 6 kilometers to go he had been caught and surpassed by a very hard attack from Frank Schleck (Etixx). He had 20 seconds on Stetina and 30 on the group of the favorites. The Luxembourgish had been followed by Robert Kiserlovski (Discovery) and David Lopez (Euskaltel) but they had been unable to follow. Meanwhile, Tony Martin was starting to lose positions in the group and was in danger of losing contact.
The pace by Frank Schleck did not decrease and the only one to react and keep up with that pace was Robert Gesink (Ag2r), although he was still 25 seconds behind with 3 kilometers to go. Jurgen van den Broeck (Cannondale) was 40 seconds behind but Peter Stetina had been caught by the group of the favorites. It is clear that Stetina is no longer his usual self as it has been a long time since he could maintain a gap in the mountains against the best riders. Peter Velits (Discovery) had a very good time trial yesterday and his surprising performance was not ending there as he was leading the chase in the group of the favorites.
Chris Froome (Lampre) managed to open a gap over the group of the favorites as Frank Schleck entered the last kilometer of the stage. The Etixx rider was getting caught by Robert Gesink, who was only 5 seconds behind. The stage would be a fight between those two as Froome was 40 seconds behind Schleck. Meanwhile, a group of 12 had caught Jurgen van den Broeck but Tony Martin had not managed to make it there. It seemed quite likely that the German would lose a bit of time in today's stage. The riders that were in the group among those close to the front of the race were Tejay van Garderen (Trek), Peter Velits and Simon Spilak (Tinkoff)
Frank Schleck wins in Valmorel! This is the first win for the Luxembourgish since the stage that finished in Jaca in last year's Vuelta, which means he had been almost a year without a win. His attack today was done at the right time and quite far from the finish line by the standards of the first mountain stage in a race. There are some doubts though as to whether he was the strongest today as Robert Gesink crossed the finish line only 5 seconds behind and had cut back a lot of time in the last few kilometers. The third place went to Chris Froome, who finished 37 seconds behind.
Meanwhile, Peter Velits attacked in the last kilometer and grabbed 6 seconds against the rest of the riders in the group, led by Michele Scarponi (Astana). The day was not that good for the leader, Tony Martin, who lost 1' 45'' at the finish line. Nevertheless, his time trial yesterday was so good that he will keep the leader's jersey for one more day with a gap of 45 seconds over Tejay van Garderen. Meanwhile, the worst performance of the day was for Marco Pinotti (Sky), who lost 4 minutes at the finish line even after Sky had worked a lot for him in the run towards the climb.
The stage finishing in Grenoble is always quite difficult to predict. The last few years it has always ended up with a sprint of a rather reduced peloton. The last kilometers of the stage are not that difficult but the middle part includes the Col du Barioz followed by the Col des Ayes, which makes for a very difficult section of the stage. However, the fact that the final 40 kilometers do not include any significant climb normally leads to groups coming back together. It should be an easier stage for Tony Martin with the leader's jersey.
The early break was probably a bit more dangerous than what Lotto would have liked. The group of 7 included riders like Ruben Plaza (BMC), Damiano Caruso (Cannondale), Peter Kennaugh (Tinkoff), Wout Poels (Vacansoleil) and Jonathan Hivert (Sky). At the Cote d'Arvillard, with 83 kilometers to go, they had a gap of 5 minutes, which made Plaza the virtual leader on the road. Therefore, Lotto and Katusha were working to keep the gap from going wild. The BMC also took the maximum points in the KoM sprint to grow his gap at the front of the classification.
The most difficult climb of the day was the Col du Barioz, which featured 7.5 kilometers at an average of 7.4% gradient. This should be the climb that put many riders in difficulties, although at 63 kilometers from the finish line it was not expected that an of the favorites would make a move. Lotto took care of setting the pace in the climb with Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lotto), George Hincapie (Lotto) and Nick Nuyens (Lotto). They were not great climbers but there were a few riders already suffering at the end of the bunch. Meanwhile, the gap to the break grew a bit more and was 6' 20'' at the top of the climb.
Peter Kennaugh beat Ruben Plaza in a sprint for the KoM points for the first time today at the Col des Ayes. They were having a nice battle for the lead in the mountain's classification. On the other hand, Cyril Gautier (FDJ) wa starting to suffer at the front group, although the toughest climbs are over for the day with 53 kilometers to go. At the bunch, the pace set by Lotto started to hurt many riders and less than 90 survived in the main group. Among those left behind was Simone Ponzi (LottoNL), who might have had a chance in a sprint if he had made it to Grenoble.
The descent of the Col des Mouilles was more important than the climb. Tejay van Garderen (Trek) crashed in the descent and lost track with the group of the leader. It was not long before Levi Leipheimer (Trek) and Simon Gerrans (Trek) stopped to help the American get back in. However, Lotto had to keep chasing the bearly break as their gap was still 5' 20'' with 44 kilometers to go and Ruben Plaza was the virtual leader of the race. Also, Marco Pinotti (Sky) was having difficulties in the climb and that suggested that his poor performance yesterday might be related to a sickness.
Tejay van Garderen had not got back to the group when David Lopez (Euskaltel) and Robert Kiserlovski (Discovery) attacked and opened a small gap. It had to be closed by Tony Martin (Lotto) alone, making it clear that he is much more comfortable in hilly stages than in the big mountains. The three riders were 3' 30'' behind the break with only 21 kilometers to go, which suggested that the stage win was not among the favorites anymore. Meanwhile, a group of 6 riders was chasing, including Robert Gesink (Ag2r), Peter Velits (Discovery) and Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery). They were 4' 20'' behind and Chris Froome (Lampre) was close to making contact with them.
The riders in the break started the descent towards Grenoble knowing that the win was most likely for them to fight for. Peter Kennaugh was the first rider to attack with around 10 kilometers to go. The others were basically looking at each other so the British got into the last 5 kilometers with a 20 seconds gap over the rest of the early break. Meanwhile, a group of 10 riders including the leader had come together and were riding 3' 30'' behind. Tejay van Garderen's group was an additional 40 seconds behind. Trek found the help from IAM to close down the gap and they were slowly but surely getting closer to the group of the leader.
Peter Kennaugh maintained his 20 seconds gap as he entered the last kilometer of the stage so he looked really good for the stage win. Meanwhile, the riders in the group behind had started their final sprint and Ruben Plaza was leading Cyril Gautier, who was followed by Wout Poels and Damiano Caruso. However, Jonathan Hivert (Sky), who was meant to be the fastest in the group, was not close to the front of the group. On the groups behind, Discovery was working in the group of the leader because they had 3 riders among the 10 in that group. They had not had a great season so far but they are showing their power in this stage.
Peter Kennaugh wins in Grenoble! It had been a very long time since Kennaugh took a win, it was the 2009 Ronde van Vlaanderen. A lot has rained since then and the British might be enjoying this win as much as he did the one 8 years ago. He was celebrating in the last few meters of the stage but he had enough of a gap behind him. In the sprint for the 2nd place it was Ruben Plaza who came on top ahead of Jonathan Hivert, 3rd. The top 5 was completed by Wout Poels and Damiano Caruso. It was not unlikely that a break won the day but it was not the base case, especially after Lotto seemed to want to control the pace in the early stages of the day.
The group of the leader managed to maintain a gap ahead of the chasers and Jean-Christophe Peraud won the sprint for the 8th place ahead of Chris Froome. The most important thing for them was the 39 seconds gap with which Tejay van Garderen's group crossed the finish line. This made him drop to the 6th place in the GC, 1' 24'' behind Tony Martin. It was also a very good day for Discovery Channel, as they have 2 riders in the top 10 of the race. Simon Spilak (Tinkoff) and Jerome Coppel (Etixx) also lost time as they did not manage to get into the front group.
Another rider that lost even more time was Xavi Tondo (Lampre). The Spaniard dropped from the top 10 in the GC after losing contact with Van Garderen's group in the last kilometers. He lost 1' 15'' against the leader today. On the other hand, the gap that the break got meant that Ruben Plaza jumped to the 4th place overall. It will be interesting to see whether the BMC rider can hold on to that position as he should not be strong enough to hold on with the best in the coming stages. Nevertheless, he is having a really good Dauphine so far.
The 7th is probably the queen stage of the 2017 Dauphine. The stage will take the riders from Le-Pont-de-Claix, a commune on the southern part of Grenoble, to the Sky resort of Superdevoluy. Robert Gesink took the win in this same stage last year but it was not enough for him to go on to win the race. He gets here 2nd in the GC this time and a similar performance should allow him to grab the leader's jersey at the end of the day. However, Tony Martin will surely do his best to limit the time losses and try to reach the last day still in the yellow jersey.
No team in the peloton could be bothered to control the race in the first kilometers of the stage and that caused a break of 14 riders to get away. Among the riders in the group we could see Tony Gallopin (IAM), Maarten Tjallingii (Etixx), Stefan van Dijk (Vacansoleil), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff), Ben Hermans (Katusha), Danilo di Luca (Euskaltel) and Tom Dumoulin (Cannondale). It was a really big group but the best placed rider in the GC, Brutt, was more than 6 minutes behind. Lotto and Astana were setting a pace in the bunch but the gap at the top of the climb to Alpe d'Huez had gone to 8' 25''.
The Col de Sarenne is not too tough a climb coming from Alpe d'Huez but it still has high percentage ramps. Ag2r and Lampre decided to take over the lead in the bunch given that Lotto was not interested at all in chasing or setting a high pace. The gap to the break immediately started to come down and was at 7' 20'' at the top of the climb with Ivan Santaromita (Lampre), Arthur Vichot (Ag2r) and Yannick Martinez (Ag2r) working. It was interesting to see that Ben Hermans was not too worried about the KoM points even though he was 3rd in the classification before the stage.
Without making much of an effort, Ben Hermans was first at the top of the Col d'Ornon and became the provisional leader of the KoM classification. With 87 kilometers to go the break still had 5 minutes over the bunch but Lampre was still very committed on making the stage as tough as possible for Chris Froome (Lampre) to increase his chances in the GC. The peloton only had a few more than 100 riders at the top of the climb with a lot of kilometers to go. It was also probably a strategy to make the day as hard as possible for Tony Martin (Lotto).
The peloton was getting close to the bottom of the Col du Noyer and the news were that Hubert Dupont (Euskaltel), who had crashed a few kilometers before, was struggling to stay in the bunch. It seemed that he had hurt himself and would be suffering in the tough final kilometers. The peloton was riding fast led by Lotto, with Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lotto) and Nick Nuyens (Lotto) at the front. Nevertheless, the gap for the early break was still 4' 20''. Lampre had stopped chasing after the Col d'Ornon and no team had seriously tried to close the gap.
The attacks from some of the climbers came really quickly, right at the bottom of the climb to Noyer. Michele Scarponi (Astana), Peter Stetina (BMC) and Robert Kiserlovski (Discovery) had a small 20 seconds gap ahead of the bunch with 6 kilometers of climbing still remaining. Rein Taaramae (Katusha) and Rob Ruijgh (Lotto) were working at the front of the pack. The 14 riders from the break still held a gap of around 2 minutes. On the back of the peloton, Hubert Dupont gave up in trying to hold on early in the climb but Tejay van Garderen (Trek) was also suffering from his crash yesterday. Even though he survived in the bunch he was close to getting dropped.
The race was a bit chaotic with 3 kilometers to go in the climb to the Col du Noyer. The peloton was starting to catch riders from the early break and riders like Frank Schleck (Etixx) and Simon Spilak (Tinkoff) were starting to attack the leader. Meanwhile, Tony Martin had tried to respond to the attacks himself and was isolated. It did not look like his teammate Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) was having a good day. The lead of the stage was for Giampaolo Caruso (FDJ), who had 20 seconds over his chasers. Among those already left behind we could see Marco Pinotti (Sky) and Tejay van Garderen.
Simon Spilak caught Giampaolo Caruso at the top of the climb. The Tinkoff rider attacked alongside Robert Kiserlovski but the Croatian could not follow his pace and crossed the KoM sprint 10 seconds behind the head of the race. The group of favorites was only 25 seconds behind but crucially, Tony Martin had lost contact and the leader was 1' 35'' behind in a group with Ruben Plaza (BMC), 4th in the GC. It was a bad moment to lose contact for the German as had he stayed with the group of favorites the gap would have been small as Superdevoluy is a short climb.
It was incomprehensible why the group of the favorites decided to stop racing hard in the descent once they caught Simon Spilak back. This allowed Juanjo Cobo (HTC) to attack ant he was followed by Mikel Nieve (Katusha) and Peter Stetina. Shortly after the start of the climb to Superdevoluy, with 3 kilometers to go, they were 20 seconds behind Cobo. However, the reduced pace also allowed Tony Martin to come back to the group of the favorites. They had him knocked out and they allowed him to recover unaided, as he did not have any teammates. The group of the leader was 55 seconds behind Cobo.
Peter Stetina and Mikel Nieve did not go far once the pace in the group of the favorites increased again and it was Frank Schleck who attacked and opened a small gap. However, he went under the flame rouge 50 seconds behind Juanjo Cobo, who was touching the stage win with his hands already. Robert Kiserlovski and Simon Spilak were leading the group of the leader. They were losing 1' 05'' against Cobo but their pace was not likely to drop Martin as they had already gone through the toughest sections of the climb and the last kilometer was fairly easy.
Juanjo Cobo wins in Superdevoluy! He might not have been the strongest today but he surely was the smartest. Cobo took advantage of the favorites looking at each other in the descent of the Col du Noyer to attack and get a gap big enough to comfortably win the stage. This is his second of the season, following the win in Port Aine in the Volta a Catalunya. Frank Schleck took the 2nd place, 50 seconds behind the Spaniard, and consolidated his bid to win the Dauphine tomorrow, although he is still 5th in the GC. It would not be unlikely to see big gap in the mountain-top finish in Risoul tomorrow.
Sergey Chernetskiy (Vacansoleil) and Simon Spilak opened a gap in the last kilometer and lost 58 seconds to Cobo, while the group of the leader, led by Rui Costa (Ag2r), crossed the line 1' 06'' behind. This result means that Tony Martin will get to the final stage with a nice gap of 46 seconds ahead of Robert Gesink in the GC. He will have to be distanced from early on in the climb for the rest of the climbers to have a chance to get the yellow jersey. Meanwhile, Ruben Plaza and Tejay van Garderen disappeared from the top 10 and Hubert Dupont ended up losing more than 17 minutes at the finish line.
