REPORT - CRITÉRIUM DU DAUPHINÉ
STAGE 4: VILLARS-LES-DOMBES - PARC DES OISEAUX
Welcome back everybody to Critérium du Dauphiné.
Today it is an Individual Time Trial up ahead, that will be the first decider for the GC, thus this fourth stage has a big importance. After we passed three rather hilly stages, all the riders will fight for their own today and race a 32.5km long pan-flat parcours from Villars-les-Dombes to Parc des Oiseaux. We have two intermediates at 11.5km and 21.5km. Will this stage create big gaps in the GC that already pre-decide the race win or will all the main contenders still have their chances? That is the big question today. We don’t know yet, but the race is up to start. Because the world’s three best time trialists in Martin (OPQ), Cancellara (RLT) and Wiggins (SKY) are lacking here, it should be a stage racer taking the win – but you never know.
The weather is as good as always – sunshine and 20 degrees. Though everybody will suffer on the 30km, it really could be worse.
Some of the early-starters are really riding strong as we see numerous TT-specialists race, but all of them are minor names. We see strong times by Orica-Greenedge who took over the first three places on the first Intermediate with Bewley, Meyer and Mouris. Clarke (ARG) and Teruel (MOV) are also strong. We see Mouris racing, who is at the moment passing Intermediate 2 and setting the best time at 28:29.
Now Lancaster (OGE) comes in, who has passed Dion (BSE) and Richeze (LAM) on the road. Of course this means the best time at 44:51. He is in front of Meyer, Bewley and Bobridge (BEL) whom are all 0:15 behind – but the big guys are yet to come.
Polish TT-champion Bodnar (CAN) is having a big fight with Gruzdev (AST) now as they are both decent time trialists. On Intermediate 1, Bodnar was 0:05 in front, on Intermediate 2 now it is 0:12. How will it look on the finish line later? Also started is now Pennarossa (CAN), who should set a long-lasting best time as he is one of the main favourites.
Bodnar came in 44:24 beating Gruzdev by 20 seconds in the end. But his time will probably not last long at the top of the standings as Pennarossa is already passing Teklehaimanot (OGE) halfway, who is not the worst on the TT-bike. The man from San Marino did 12:49 on Chrono 1 and therefore beat Bodnar by 19 seconds already.
Damn, I cannot believe this time! Pennarossa rolled over the line in 43:11. That is 1:13 faster than Bodnar and 1:33 faster than Gruzdev on the next places. How long will this best time last?
The last part of the race missed strong roulers, but now it is Castroviejo (MOV) crossing the line and he is second. Though it took him 0:58 longer than Pennarossa, so now we know that this time is worth much as Castroviejo is a very strong guy as well.
And the same goes for Meyer (OGE) who is slowing down now after passing the finish line. He is 40 seconds slower than Pennarossa and in second for now.
Here we go, the real action starts from now. Yes, you have heard right, it is an early point in the race, but from now on all 97 riders are 3:24 (except the last ten) in arrears. You see, the times really matter now and can decide the GC. The first main contender is Dennis (GRS) starting.
It does not look good for Dennis though as he is already 29 seconds back on the second Intermediate. In the meantime Birtles (COF) has started – we have to take a close look at his time later on for sure.
While Dennis was rather disappointing coming in third with a 0:50 gap on Pennarossa, Birtles beat his time at Intermediate 1 by three seconds and is now up to pass Zandio (SKY). Can he be the first to go faster than the Cannondale rider?
I did not see that coming. Birtles went to fast in the beginning and suffered later on, so he lost 0:28 on Pennarossa in the end, who seems to have had a superb day. Unfortunately, our cameras missed Birtles crossing the line, but we see Roy (FDJ) who is riding strongly as well. He just came in fourth, 0:47 behind the leader and now in between of Meyer and Dennis.
While Klöden (RLT) showed an unpredictably strong ride by coming in fourth at 0:44, we now see Kim (EUC) ready to start. He is definitely one of the major favourites for today. He is my bet for the win today. Or is it Froome? I’m not quite sure, but I’d say we will see a battle between those both. By the way, Kiryienka (SKY) and De Gendt (VCD) are fast on the road and getting Top10s at the Intermediates, but they are no threat for Pennarossa or the podium at all.
Kim passes the first Intermediate but is just fourth with 8 seconds disadvantage. Most probably he just needs some more time to find his rhythm.
Yes, he is gaining. On the second Intermediate he is second with only 0:04 behind Pennarossa. It seems like he will finally remove him from the top of the standings. Nothing is happening elsewhere on the road, so we stick to the young Asian.
While van Garderen (BMC) and Kwiatkowski (OPQ) are slightly disappointing with sixth and tenth place on Chrono 1, more and more of the big guys started their race. More importantly, Kim crossed the line. But he could not reach the time of Pennarossa and has to set for second place. Though he was gaining in the middle part, he had no chance against Pennarossa’s strong finish. However, with 43:19 and 8 seconds back, Kim will distance many GC contenders and should be proud on himself. Only ten riders are left to start now and we see van Garderen passing the 10km banner.
Froome (SKY) has also started his race. I like him wearing the points jersey, because that is something we do not see so often – usually it is rather yellow (or any other colour for the race leader). Only seven riders are left to start.
That was no good day for Kwiatkowski. He gets sixth but he surely awaited more than being 43 seconds down on the leader. And we should not forget that there are strong guys yet to come. Van Garderen did better and found some energy from somewhere, so he had a strong last kilometers and finally came in third being 0:24 back.
All guys on the road now! Race leader Amador (MOV) has a comfortable position being 2:03 in front of Nieve (EUS) and Trofimov (KAT), but we will see how much he is going to lose. By the way, we recently saw that the early Intermediates do not mean much. While some riders, like van Garderen, are really gaining in the end, we also saw Kangert (AST), who was only half a minute back at Intermediate 2, but then lost another half a minute on the last 10 kilometers and finished outside of the Top10. So it seems like we will have high tense until the end.
De la Montagne (COF) is the next one with a good time at the finish line. We did not really see that coming, but in the end he is sixth with 0:43 down, so at the same time as Kwiatkowski. Who else is doing good on the road? Rogers (TST) has 5km left and was 0:32 back on the second Intermediate, Froome is passing the second Intermediate, but we are waiting for his time. Some of the guys in the Top10 will definitely drop out as they lose even more than a minute until Chrono 1. López (SKY), Gasparotto (AST), Danielson (GRS), Navarro (COF) and Trofimov will drop down the standings for sure. Gilbert (BMC) is doing slightly better while Nieve and Amador have not passed the Intermediate yet.
You see, there are many things happening now at the same time, I will wrap things up for you: Spilak (KAT) finished 1:16 back with Roche, Rogers, Contador (all TST) and Mollema (BEL) still having chances to stay in the Top20 of today while Top10 should be out of sight for them. We got Froome’s time from Chrono 2 and it is an amazing one. 26:51 it took him, which is even 24 seconds less than current leader Pennarossa. By the looks of things, Froome will win the stage. Behind him, only Chavanel is doing good, but also he is 0:23 behind at Chrono 1. However, Amador has now passed it and the yellow jersey makes him flying! He only lost 11 seconds on Froome, which is even less than Pennarossa! It looks like Amador can maintain a quite decent lead onto Froome in the GC and that will certainly mean good news for the Movistar team, but can he compete then in the high mountains?
As I said earlier, none of the finishers made it to the Top10 and we await Froome in a short period of time. Meanwhile Gilbert really started fading and is now also 1:35 behind Froome on Chrono 2. But Chavanel is still doing good as he is eight there, being 0:50 in arrears.
And Froome finishes. He could not increase his lead, but still, his time of 42:44 gives him a gap of 0:26 on Pennarossa, 0:35 on Kim and already 0:51 on van Garderen – so it is big gaps today. Some moments ago, Amador passed the second Intermediate. His time? Four seconds behind Pennarossa and the same time as Kim, so he is 28 seconds behind Froome. That guy is really surprising me. If somebody has told me, Amador would maintain most of his lead on the big guys today and even increase it overall, because the riders right behind him lose much time, I would not have believed that. But, as I said, that leader’s jersey can make people flying. This somehow reminds me of Oscar Freire back in the Tour de France some years ago climbing among the best as a sprinter/puncheur. But, well, we already knew that Amador is a strong rider on the flat, so it is not really a comparable surprise.
The last finishers all were rather uninteresting but now we see Chavanel crossing the line in 13th, 1:18 behind Froome. As he was only 2:28 back on Amador beforehand, he should move into a good GC position.
Navarro and Trofimov had a hard day as they finished 4:17 respectively 3:39 behind Froome and therefore drop down the GC massively. Nieve here also suffers massively. He has been passed by Amador already and was already 3:00 back after 20km. But we are waiting for Amador to come to the finish.
And there he is! Thrilling performance by him as he gets… fourth! He only lost 45 seconds on winner Froome. Second is Pennarossa on 27 seconds while Kim gets third on 35. Then we have van Garderen (0:51) and Birtles (0:56). Already one minute back are Meyer (1:08) in seventh, De la Montagne and Kwiatkowski in eighth and ninth on 1:10 and Kiryienka (1:11) closing the Top10. Behind the gaps are rather little, but numerous riders lost four or even five minutes, so this stage was a real GC decider.
Leading the GC is of course Amador with Froome, Chavanel, Kim, van Garderen, Birtles, de la Montagne, Kwiatkowski, Kiryienka and Klöden behind. We see that there is some good shape already, but the hard mountain stages are still to come.
I hope we meet again tomorrow for the next stage. Have a nice day!
Good ride by Amador but not as unexpected as he is still a 76TT time triallist. Honestly, I did not feared this TT too much but the next stage will be the crucial, the deciding one. If he will not lose more than 1'30'' or maybe 2'00 to the best on stage 5 then everything is suddenly possible for Amador.
Welcome to the preview of the Tour de Suisse 2013. It’s the last big stage-race before the Tour de France starts.
While the Criterium du Dauphiné naturally has the stronger field, it is the other way around this time, with lots of strong GC guys showing up.
The record winner of this race is Pasquale Fornara, a Italian guy. He dominated the Tour de Suisse in the 50s. He managed to win the Tour de Suisse 4 times. Recent winners of the Tour de Suisse are Fränk Schleck, Levi Leipheimer and Rui Costa.
Last Year
Tour de Suisse was of course also a World Tour race in 2012. Funny enough, the 3 recent winners managed to podium the 2012 edition, with Rui Costa winning the GC, in front of Schleck, Leipheimer. Gesink got 4th, and Nieve did well with a 5th place.
This race was totally dominated by Sagan. After winning the hilly prologue, Sagan managed to win the 3rd, 4th and 6th stage as well, all in sprints.
Costa won the first summit finish, which was on stage 2. It was rather hilly though. Costa acquired the leader’s jersey here, and he managed to hold on to it until the very end.
Stage 5 was a breakaway win. Isaychev took a huge win.
Stage 7 was a TT. Kessiakoff managed to beat Cancellara here.
The last two stages were mountainous. Albasini took stage 8, while Kangert took his first big result of his career by taking the 9th stage.
The Route
This year’s Tour de Suisse starts very tough. Stage 1 is a 8km prologue, a warm-up for the real deal. The prologue is almost completely flat.
The second stage is already a summit finish though. It’s a relatively short stage to Crans-Montana. There’s a very long flat part before the final climb. The riders will climb to 1700m, from just-above sea-level. It’s a 16km climb of 6,9% on average. The final part is really steep and goes until 17,5%. Definitely an important stage for the GC.
Stage 3 is a longer stage, a 200km stage to Meiringen. The ‘’Winterlücke’’ is the big obstacle of stage 3. It’s located 30km from the finish, roughly, and it’s 10km long. It’s middle part is really steep, and I expect quite some differences in that part. The riders have to climb to 1300m, which is definitely enough to make big differences.
A nice downhill follows after that, a quite steep one. Halfway the downhill, there’s a hill where the bad downhillers can make up a bit again. But the downhill continues, and good downhillers can definitely get some time here. The downhill goes (nearly) all the way to the finish.
With stage 4 and 5, the riders get some rest, and the sprinters will probably decide these ones, though stage 5 has some notable speedbumps.
Stage 6 is the first hilly stage. Around 20km from the end, there’s a steep hill that might make some differences. A steep downhill follows. It wouldn’t surprise me if punchy sprinters survive here, unless some GC favourites are interested in the win here. Stage 7 is a mountain stage. The last 50km is full of climbs and downhills. It’s a 205km stage, so stamina will come into play. 25km from the end, the riders arrive at the Albulapass, a 18,5km climb of 6,6% on average. The climb doesn’t have any steep parts though, with a 10% max. A downhill of just more than 5km follows. Another stage that favours downhillers.
Stage 8 is technically a hilly stage, but it’s mostly flat. It does have an interesting speedbump 10km from the end, which might make some differences. Stage 9, the final stage, is a half mountain TT. The first 16km, to Flums, are pan-flat. After that, there’s a steep 11km climb. The riders will climb the Flumserberg, which has a summit at 1300m. This will certainly inflict some big gaps in the GC.
The Startlist
As you can see, the startlist is really, really strong. Lots of good GC riders are here. Katusha is here with both Purito as Moreno. Nibali is here, but he took a weak team with him. Ditto for Quintana, he does not have a strong team, Llanet being the exception.
Quickstep has an interesting team here. Tony Martin is with us in Suisse, and will surely dominate the prologue. Betancur and Pozzovivo are also both here. Garmin has a strong squad, with both Stromberg for the sprint, and Hesjedal for the GC. Porte is there with an okay team. Kreuziger could do well too, but has a poor team. FDJ has a huge sprinter depth, with Demare and Bouhanni both here. They also sent some flat beats; Ladagnous and Offredo. I’m not sure if it’s smart, but it’s notable at least and they’ll have a great sprinting train.
It will also be fairly interested to see how IAM will do. They sent Ronaldo and Totti. Ronaldo is a great puncher on paper, and Totti is a great climber on paper. But they do not seem to fulfil their potential. Beside the FDJ duo and Stromberg, other sprinters are Goss and Viviani. Hagen and Meersman are notable hilly sprinters.
Other notable riders here are Argos’ stage-racer Ghita, Belkin duo Kelderman & LLS, climbers Kiserlovski, Niemiec, Scarponi, Evans(let’s see how hard he’ll fail this time) and Weening, TTist Westra, and Nocentini and Visconti as strong punchers.
Lotto gets the award I just made up specially for them; ‘ The worst team of the universe’ award. They haven’t really sent anyone that’s even slightly interesting. Just cobbles domestique Sieberg and 'Mr 20th' De Greef.
The Favourites
Finally, the favourites. You have to be a good climber to win this, but with a prologue and a semi-MTT, TT is important as well. Also, there are quite some decisive downhills, so being a decent downhiller will be important. I don’t think that being decent on the hills is important, unless you are so ridiculously good that you can make big differences on short hills, like Rodriguez.
A good team is important as well of course. Which is basically what most contenders are lacking.
N.Quintana(MOV)
V.Nibali(AST)
J.Rodriguez(KAT)
R.Porte(SKY)
R.Kreuziger(SAX)
C.Betancur(ALM)
O.Ghita(ARG)
Other guys with good chances: R. Hesjedal, C.Totti, C.De las Campos, R.Bardet, W.Kelderman, M.Scarponi, R.Kiserlovski, P.Niemiec, D.Moreno, F.Duarte, P.Weening. Maybe C.Evans can get 11th as well.
With a GC Goal in Dauphine FDJ is just here to stage hunt. Vichot could surprise in the hills, while it's a great chance for Bouhanni and Demare to get a win or two.
Is it just me, or is Orica not in that startlist? You mention their riders but i don't see them
That's a pretty damn stong startlist. I'm starting to fear my two easy goals (top 10 Suisse and Dauphine) aren't that easy anyway...
Edited by Atlantius on 17-05-2014 10:15
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
(MOV)
(AST)
(KAT)
(SKY)
(SAX)
(ARG)
