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Criterium du Dauphine Libere - Discussion
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| Ulrich Ulriksen |
Posted on 25-03-2021 21:55
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 Criterium du Dauphine Libere
Welcome to perhaps the most famous non-GT stage race on the calendar, the Criterium du Dauphine Libere, or as we will call it to save keystrokes, the Dauphine.
This year sees a very balanced course with 2 flat stages (1 and 4), 2 hilly ones (2 and 6), 2 flat time trials (3 and 7) and 2 mountains stages (5 and 8). The mountains stages mean the overall is likely to go to a climber. But there are 64 combined km’s of flat time trials so the winner will need to handle those as well.
Last year’s winner,  Sicard returns to defend his title, but that will be a tall task given one name on the start list. The favorites are:
| MT | HI | RS | TT | RC |  Phinney | 85 | 77 | 74 | 83 | 76 |  Alarcon | 84 | 73 | 74 | 67 | 73 |  Eastman | 82 | 71 | 75 | 77 | 76 |  Amador | 82 | 73 | 71 | 76 | 74 | | Sicard | 82 | 78 | 79 | 76 | 82 |  Quintana | 82 | 74 | 76 | 71 | 76 |  Haig | 81 | 74 | 75 | 77 | 78 |  Barguil | 81 | 75 | 77 | 70 | 82 |  Henao Montoya | 81 | 70 | 78 | 70 | 75 |  Olivier | 81 | 76 | 80 | 69 | 77 |
There probably only needs to be one name on that list. Phinney is not only the best climber but has a massive advantage in the time trial and could likely win those stages as well. After their offseason investment in the 30-yo Isostar hope to continue to reap the rewards of careful race planning. And Phinney did win this race in 2016 and 2018 so this is his year.
Among the rest, the defending champion, along with Haig, Eastman, and Amador have both strong TT and Climbing skills. Although Eastman, particularly, will need to be careful not to lose time in the hilly stages while Sicard will hope to gain some ground there. Alarcon will need to make up for his TT weakness in the mountains.
Perhaps making the race more challenging for the GC riders is that a fairly large group of strong puncheurs have shown up to fight out the two hilly stages.
| MT | HI | RS | AC | RC |  Lutsenko | 73 | 83 | 73 | 81 | 70 |  Gastauer | 70 | 81 | 69 | 75 | 67 |  McCarthy | 67 | 81 | 75 | 74 | 70 |  Boswell | 71 | 80 | 73 | 76 | 71 | | Paulinho | 75 | 80 | 72 | 75 | 74 | | Chaves | 76 | 79 | 73 | 72 | 72 |  Chernetskiy | 71 | 79 | 69 | 71 | 70 | | Reichenbach | 73 | 79 | 69 | 69 | 73 | | Bellis | 68 | 78 | 71 | 75 | 69 |  Boily | 76 | 78 | 72 | 74 | 69 |  Teuns | 75 | 78 | 73 | 72 | 76 | | Sicard | 82 | 78 | 79 | 70 | 82 | | Müller | 64 | 78 | 70 | 70 | 69 | | Serry | 75 | 78 | 70 | 69 | 69 |
Lutsenko is the stand out name on this list and only Sicard among the climbers meets the 78 hill cut off.
Phinney’s quest to dominate the TTs will be helped by the fact that the race attracted a relatively small group of TT specialists, despite 64km of flat time trials.
| | | TT | RS | | Phinney | 83 | 74 |  Würtz | 82 | 78 | | Vlatos | 81 | 71 | | Brändle | 79 | 73 | | Wirtgen | 78 | 74 | | Campenaerts | 78 | 73 | | Bernaudeau | 78 | 71 |
Only Würtz is close to Phinney among this group. Wirtgen, also a decent climber, will be chasing the White jersey.
Just in case you thought Phinney might have a weakness the team has sent two strong climbers to protect him in Novak and Kozhatayev.
Finally, there are 2 sprint stages. The top riders there include:
| FL | SP | AC | RS | | Swift | 73 | 83 | 81 | 69 | | Howard | 76 | 82 | 79 | 70 | | Samolenkov | 74 | 81 | 79 | 71 | | Silvestre | 78 | 80 | 81 | 71 | | Kupfernagel | 74 | 80 | 80 | 66 |  Petit | 76 | 80 | 78 | 72 | | Afewerki | 73 | 79 | 80 | 70 | | Hsu | 75 | 79 | 79 | 70 | | Soupe | 72 | 79 | 77 | 69 |
Wildcard Berg have the favorite with Swift and he brings his complete leadout, all of whom make the favorites list. In addition Petit has a strong lead out, with Santos and Kreder, while all the others all have more limited team support.
Full Start List
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling |
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| SotD |
Posted on 25-03-2021 22:01
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World Champion
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Except for the possible Stage top 3 from Vlatos we really do come with nothing here. I hope we can somehow continue the aggressive riding from Switzerland as that is our only chance to have any sort if succes. Boily on paper a possible top 25 vandigste, but that doesn’t really amount to anything. So let’s hope to see him attack.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 06-12-2025 22:54
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 25-03-2021 22:07
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Gonna need a Top 3 from Quintana. Can he do it? No.
Im sure I'll end up not even getting a Top 10 stage result here. It'll be nice to see what sort of disaster I should be expecting for the Tour with Quintana.
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 25-03-2021 22:17
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Tour de France Champion
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Aranburu might have a rare chance for some aggression here. Would be nice to see. 
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| ember |
Posted on 25-03-2021 22:28
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Team Leader
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Expecting nothing here, fingers crossed we can show the jersey in a couple of breakaways.
Thank you for your work on reports and races these days, Ulrich! Feels like you're everywhere!
Edit: Agree, bbl! He'd be our best card for breakaway whenever we get a difficult stage profile wise here  |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 25-03-2021 22:53
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Given the TT kilometers, Top-5 must be the goal for Haig. A single good stage result would be nice for a change..
Howard has been far from great, constantly sprinting to mid or low Top-10s. Given our lineup and him maybe being forced to get a train, we may end up with some more low key stage results. Obviously, I'm hoping for the opposite
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| redordead |
Posted on 26-03-2021 07:15
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Phinney should dominate this race
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 26-03-2021 07:40
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We sent a team to ride all the race from the front, including strong roleurs such as Jans and Tarvis to control the race, and also the climbing squad with Kozhatayev and Novak. We hope to dominate this race, let's hope we can make that happen.
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| knockout |
Posted on 26-03-2021 10:19
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Grand Tour Champion
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Huge opportunity for Isostar, this must be the most perfect startlist for Phinney. Everything's set for domination...
A bit surprised to see Alarcon here. Looks like a terrible fit but the lack of strong contenders might bail him out a bit.
As for me, I'm quite confident that my team will do a lot better than in Suisse. Despite not being mentioned once in the startlist, i think we have at least one pretty good top ten contender in Chiarello while Tvetcov might surprise as well. The TTs should give us a bit of an advantage over many of their rivals here.
I also have a pretty strong group of rouleurs here due to the Suisse/Riga clash without a top sprinter (only Liepins), hopefully that gives them space to attack on the flat stages. Would love to see Stoltz or Dzamastagic aggressive. Time to gain back on Festina
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| SotD |
Posted on 26-03-2021 10:22
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World Champion
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Nah, let's wait a bit with that - You'll catch me in due time. Let me enjoy an update being 1st, when I was cheated of that last season due to a race being moved "back"
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| tastasol |
Posted on 26-03-2021 11:39
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Hope to get something out of the TTs and a decent GC for Stake Laengen. Phinney will be tough to beat and I'm not sure how Wurtz will get to the last TT, but hopefully a couple of podiums will be the goal.
Phinney should easily dominate this race.
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| knockout |
Posted on 26-03-2021 12:30
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8236
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SotD wrote:
Nah, let's wait a bit with that - You'll catch me in due time. Let me enjoy an update being 1st, when I was cheated of that last season due to a race being moved "back"
Doesnt it help to know that you were at the top of the table after the last month and only didnt top the last ranking update because Riga was moved "ahead"?
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| SotD |
Posted on 26-03-2021 12:35
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World Champion
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knockout wrote:
SotD wrote:
Nah, let's wait a bit with that - You'll catch me in due time. Let me enjoy an update being 1st, when I was cheated of that last season due to a race being moved "back"
Doesnt it help to know that you were at the top of the table after the last month and only didnt top the last ranking update because Riga was moved "ahead"?
Nope - It was included, so I didn't get my moment in the spotlight
You can have the lead back after July if you want  - We will definately suffer in July
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 27-03-2021 05:30
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Stupid. Another wasted race day for Howard and we keep watching breakaways taking wins left and right.
Gratz, SotD, though.
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| SotD |
Posted on 27-03-2021 05:39
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World Champion
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For what? We didn’t do much here :-)
We should have been attending a break like this, but it wasn’t our turn. Let’s hope to see that change soon!
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 27-03-2021 05:43
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Arghh. Cio, of course. It's early and I didn't sleep too well 
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| knockout |
Posted on 27-03-2021 06:42
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Grand Tour Champion
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nice one! hopes went up for a succeeding break when I saw it was decently sized and Stoltz was part of it. He hasnt been in many breaks on flat stages so im very happy to see him there for once. Congrats cio
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| quadsas |
Posted on 27-03-2021 08:17
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Videika baby
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| tastasol |
Posted on 27-03-2021 09:26
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Classics Specialist
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Really hoped that Kragh would join the break, as I felt this was a good chance, but we opted for the quiet stage today. Hope he's more alert on the next flat stage.
Congrats on the win, cio. Puma in a good rythm atm.
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| ember |
Posted on 27-03-2021 09:27
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Nice to have luck on our side and bring in some points too, after many attempts, but no success in Suisse! Videika in second is good. Can't help thinking of the win when he's in such position, but Sagiv was clearly the strongest in the sprint. Videika had his wheel, but wasn't able to challenge at all, really.
Great start to the race for us. This is already a success! |
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