We have already spoken about the profile and general startlist, now we will have a deeper look onto the teams and the favourites. Who will win the GC, which stages could fit whom? We answer those questions.
In terms of the GC we have many favourites. The big two are:
Froome (SKY) and
Contador (TST).
Their teams will work hard for them, we can await a hard fight for the win between those two. Behind them, there are several others competing for the podium and the Top5 - or even more? Those are basically:
Van den Broeck (LTB),
Van Garderen (BMC),
Mollema (BEL),
Kim (EUC),
Spilak (KAT).
Behind them are many other strong climbers and minor stage racers, but it would take to long to look at all those guys at this point.
The first three stages will probably not decide the GC, so they fit everybody who has some fighting spirit and a decent ability in mountains. That could be almost everyone in the peloton and these stages will be very open for sure.
In the upcoming ITT, we have not really decent time trialist, so it should be between the GC guys again with Froome as the big favourite in my opition. But Kim and others will also give their best.
Stage 5 is all about climbing ability and beyond the guys we already mentioned because of the overall win, some strong climbers that are weaker in TTs have their chance to show a strong ride here as well. Those are for example:
Of course there are many other guys also having a chance here but we usually only list the team captains and of course we cannot mention everybody.
While stages 7 and 8 will also be something for the mountain goats, stage 5 could turn out as the only chance for sprinters. And due to form building and training on mountain riding before the Tour de France, we have some decent sprinters here, that would give everything for only one chance to achieve a stage win. We have here:
Kittel (ARG),
Greipel (LTB),
Bos (BEL).
So, let the racing begin! We hope you feel well introduced. Enjoy the coverage!
Edited by Silvio Herklotz on 07-05-2014 21:02
Dear Ladies and Gentleman,
Welcome to this year’s Critérium du Dauphiné! We are heading on to the very first stage today and this one should be very interesting, because it features several climbs and everybody is motivated to give his best right from the start. As with 118km the stage is kind of short, we await a high tempo and attacks from the start. There will be many options for those: The Côte de Morgins right in the start, then the Col du Corbier and the not so steep Pas de Morgins. The finish is on Côte de Champéry on 1049m. Because of the rather short climbs this stage should not cause heavy impact on the GC, but maybe can give some puncheurs the chance to gain time.
It is 24 degrees outside and the sky is a bit cloudy, but all in all we got perfect weather for a race.
All the riders are at the startline ready for kick-off.
106km to go
Under the high pace set by Lotto-Belisol and Sky throughout the whole first climb, nobody could attack from the peloton. But now as we are on a short flat section, Vaitkus (OGE) is willing to try his luck.
105km to go
As we get near the top of the mountain and the KoM sprint, he is joined by Amador (MOV) with Rabottini (VIN) not far behind. The peloton is still in sight though.
104km to go
Amador goes straight forward until the KoM banner and takes the points in front of Vaitkus and Rabottini, who still has a gap to close.
100km to go, E1 – 1:20 – Peloton
As Lotto-Belisol and Sky are still chasing for some odd reason, Rabottini is caught now after his short attempt. Meanwhile Amador and Vaitkus work well together and open quite a gap on the peloton, so those two will certainly be our break of the day, I think.
95km to go, E1 – 2:00 – Peloton
Now Lotto stops the chasing and we have one more attack by Barguil (ARG). He is someone who could be really capable of a breakaway win on this stage if he manages to get up front. By the way, Vaitkus is known as a lot weaker climber than Amador, so we will see how good those two are going to work together.
60km to go, E1 – 2:19 – Barguil – 2:34 – Peloton
Right at the foot of the next climb, the Col du Corbier, the pack is still together. But we wonder why Lotto-Belisol is doing all the work since tens of kilometers. They surely believe in Van den Broeck for the win. While Amador and Vaitkus are working better together than we expected, Barguil does not like this and is still stuck in no man’s land. This attack turns out as a total waste of energy.
50km to go, E1 – 2:16 – Barguil – 1:32 – Peloton
The leaders are now entering the part of the climb with the higher percentages. Vaitkus sticks to Amador’s wheel as Sky is pulling the peloton still on less steep sections of the mountain. Barguil is now losing time heavily as he most probably chose to stop his effort.
45km to go, E1 – 2:19 – Peloton
Sky is setting a thrilling tempo on the climb and they reel in Barguil in no time. The front duo only has about two minutes now left but they will decide the KoM between them. Under the high pace there are occurring splits in the field again and again, but until now there are always riders closing them again with all of these mini-sprints.
44km to go, E1 – 2:25 – Peloton
Rabottini (Vin) who has been attacking on the first climb so far, is willing to try his luck again and jumps out of the peloton.
43km to go, E1 – 1:56 – E2 – 0:34 – Peloton
The leaders did not even contest for the points, but Amador just dropped Vaitkus on the last meters before the top. Barguil decided to hang on to Rabottini and they are opening a gap on the pack again where Sky is chasing not so hard anymore but still controlling things.
35km to go, E1 – 1:55 – E2 – 0:32 – Peloton
The descend was ridden hard and we are now on the foot of the penultimate climb, Pas de Morgins. This one will be ridden on lower percentages, but it is a long one. The speed on the downhill causes major gaps in the pack and also the first 100 riders are usually holding contact, there are several groups behind. But every moment, the peloton could crack at every point, so the captains are all near the front.
30km to go, Amador – 0:30 – Vaitkus – 1:58 – Peloton
Vaitkus is having a hard time today. He is known to be not the best climber and now he has to let Amador ride away on the lowe percentages of the mountain already. But he is trying desperately to keep a steady pace and maybe benefit from the torture somehow. Meanwhile Rabottini and Barguil were swallowed by the pack already, where Sky is still pacing.
28km to go, Amador – 0:56 – Vaitkus – 1:17 – Peloton
Amador is also getting the 6 points from the intermediate sprint while Vaitkus has a quite big gap on him and is heavily losing time onto the peloton. He is rewarded with 4, but will be swallowed before the top for certain. From the peloton, López took the last two points. We are getting message from the last two KoM sprints now, which were Cat. 1, here are the points for the first one: Amador 15, Vaitkus 13, Rabottini 11, Edmonson (SKY) 9, Van de Walle (LTB), Kruijswijk (BEL) 7, De Vries (LTB) 6, Mollema (BEL) 5. And for the second one: Amador 15, Vaitkus 13, Barguil 11, Rabottini 9, López 8, Boswell 7, Zandio 6, Edmonson 5 (all four SKY).
26km to go, Amador – 1:00 – Vaitkus – 1:09 – Peloton
Barguil is trying it again! After his big attack he should not have much in the tank left, but somehow he still believes in his strength. Is he really doing the right thing or will he be wasted after the first of eight stages already?
24km to go, Amador – 1:12 – Vaitkus – 0:48 – E3 – 0:24 – Peloton
Wow, there are now attacks coming in! Many riders try their luck as we enter the steeper parts of the hill. Amador is holding on to his high and steady pace, while Navarro (COF), Gesink (BEL), Voeckler (EUC) and Trofimov (KAT) pass Barguil who seems to have wasted his last bit of energy.
22km to go, Amador – 2:04 – Peloton
And the peloton is all back together with FDJ and AG2R now really kicking it. They certainly have something in mind on that climb. But all the others sense the danger so now everyone is aware of closing the little gaps occurring. By the way, about 110 riders entered this climb together. We will see how much of them are still in contention when we go on to the last one.
21km to go, Amador – 1:54 – E2 – 0:38 – Peloton
Trofimov and Navarro show some great fighting spirit and attack again. But I am looking at Amador most of the time as he seems to still have enough power to kick his bike over the climb. Can he go for the stage win and the leader’s jersey from a breakaway?
20km to go, Amador – 1:44 – E2 – 0:32 – E3 – 0:16 – Peloton
The riders not capable of going with the best on the final hill are trying to make their move now and maintain a lead on the pack until the end. We see Klöden (RLT) and Nieve (EUS) attacking. Sky is joined by Belkin in the pacemaking.
19km to go, Amador – 1:34 – E2 – 0:24 – E3 – 0:37 – Peloton
Amador grabs easily the points on the KoM sprint with two duos behind trying to avoid falling back into the pack. All of them are sprinting on the top and giving it everything to go over in front of the peloton.
17km to go, Amador – 1:16 – Trofimov – 0:28 – E3 – 0:56 – Peloton
Entering the descent, the situation has changed completely. Amador is losing ground now, Trofimov has sprinted away from Navarro, who was joined by Nieve. Klöden fell back into the peloton though. Rabottini and Barguil attacked again for the KoM points, however, their gap to Amador is already quite big. The whole result of the last KoM Cat. 2 is: Amador 10, Trofimov 9, Nieve 8, Navarro 7, Rabottini 6, Barguil 5. On that interesting picture you can see all escapees, three you will find for sure, but did you spot Amador in the background on the left, on the edge between hill and house?
7km to go, Amador – 1:28 – Trofimov – 0:40 – Nieve – 0:12 – Navarro – 0:40 – Peloton
Amador now enters the last climb, called Côte de Champéry, can he grab the win today? Everybody maintained his lead on the downhill pretty well, but Navarro was dropped by Nieve. In the peloton there are still 96 riders, so the race is not decided at all. But some could get a decent lead today.
5km to go, Amador – 1:25 – Trofimov – 0:27 – Nieve – 0:23 – Navarro – 0:52 – Peloton
The peloton is entering the final climb now as well as Sky is building up a pretty strong mountain train. But they will not be able all the escapees as the breakaway riders are now all riding for their own. Amador should get the stage win, if nothing unpredicted happens.
3km to go, Amador – 1:23 – Trofimov – 0:17 – Nieve – 0:37 – Navarro – 0:53 - Peloton
There are no attacks at the moment, but everybody is continuing their strong rides today. We are looking over the shoulder of Navarro who can already see the finish line. He also sees that Nieve is quickly closing in on Trofimov – what a nice fight for place 2. Or are there attacks to come from the peloton that take away the remaining podium places?
Finish line
Amador holds on to that win! In a strong ride overall, he grabs the stage win and the GC lead with a quite good lead onto the main GC contenders. But will that grant him a chance to compete for the win? I don’t think so. Behind there are still no attacks on the peloton, so it is most likely that Trofimov and Nieve, whom are now racing together, will compete for second and third while even Navarro could secure a gap on fourth.
Finish line
It was a big fight between the Katusha and the Euskaltel rider, but in the end, Trofimov secures place two in front of Nieve. They are already nearly two minutes behind Amador.
Finish line
In the peloton, there is a big sprint going on between punchy climbers. But this will not decide the GC as all favourites are still up there. Will they be able to catch Navarro? And who will be coming in on the next places? It is Martin (GRS), Contador (TST), López (SKY), De Clercq (LTB), Slagter (BEL), Siutsou (SKY), Froome (SKY), Mollema (BEL), Kennaugh (SKY), Kruijswijk (BEL) and Van den Broeck (LTB) in this exact row.
Finish line
Navarro could maintain a little gap onto the others coming in, but he was already a minute behind the other two. Behind him, Contador sprinted up to fifth with Martin and Froome coming in then. Mollema, López and Siutsou took the last places in top ten. Both Van den Broeck and Clercq narrowly miss out on the Top10 so Lotto-Belisol’s hard work today did not pay off as 95 riders finish in the peloton and all favourites among them.
Thanks for joining me for today’s coverage and I will see you again on the next stage, hopefully!
I knew it was the right decision to give Amador the leader role here. Great stage for him.
I knew that he would have a chance from the moment Lotto stopped chasing. Brilliant effort and the whole team knew that there help will be needed on the next stages to defend this jersey so they dropped back.
I cant see why others are complaining about the AI because which human would have decided THAT better than the AI
I actually didn't mind the AI, breakaway win, favourites not showing themselves the first stage, doesn't sound too unrealistic. And a good report Edited by Ollfardh on 09-05-2014 09:08
Anyways, shame Vaitkus couldn't hang on a compete for the win, while Cam loses some time but in the main group while Favre loses enough time to be a good helper and maybe go in a break.
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
