Welcom in Ville-la-Grand and in Haute-Savoie. Though the official capital of the departement is Chambéry, here we’re more in Geneva’s suburbs. The cathedral of the Swiss city is indeed only 7 km far, and Ville-la-Grand is right at the border, having the city of Pulinge in the North. The Lake Léman is only a few kilometers more in the North (and in the West).
So, Savoie and Switzerlands, yes, that shouts mountains! The 2 stages finale of the 2022 Critérium du Dauphiné begins today, and with an impressive program. It should be the queen stage of the race. If the 20 first kilometers are flat, the peloton will then climb two category 2 and one category 1 passes. Then another flat section for the intermediate sprint, and two HC climbs to finish in Finhaut, at the dam of Emosson, 1930 meters above sea level.
The GC battle truly begins today, and that shows in the favorites list. All eyes will be on the Vuelta winner Dombrowski and on the yellow jersey, Cattaneo.
We take the race with 9 km to go before the first climb, as everyone seems to have settled for a break of the day. 11 men have a 1’20 gap on the peloton, led by Voyagin and Gazelle, with help from Grieg and Aegon. The eleven are: Hermans (best climber, 38 points), De Vos, Elissonde Chhetri Lammertink Guldhammer Bravo Brkic Jang Krasts Barbio
A big HelloFresh presence at he front to help Hermans to keep his jersey. The best GC wise is Barbio (22nd, +5’14), but Guldhammer will probably the one to hope for a winning break to place himself well in the GC.
The gap remained the same as these 11 begin the Côte des Gets (cat. 2, 10km, 5%).
Nearly all of Voyagin team is on chasing duties.
It was to prepare an attack! In the first slopes, Lyu and Schelling (6th, 16 points) are going out of the pack. They follow Salinas, Garby and Potocki, who took the initiative first.
Guldhammer must have set his eyes of the blue jersey of the best climber, as he’s the first to attack, 1 km from the top. He’s followed by Bravo and Brkic.
Chhetri has been caught by the chasers, and Barbio is with a third group, further down. He’ll soon be back in the pack.
HelloFresh did a great job to bring back Hermans, but they are not strong enough for Guldhammer, who takes 10 points. Hermans takes 6 (44 in total).
Except for Guldhammer, all the points went to HelloFresh riders, Potocki taking the lasts.
124 km to go, and a group of 14 now opens the road: Hermans (best climber, 38 points), De Vos, Elissonde, Potocki Lammertink, Schelling Lyu Guldhammer Bravo Brkic Jang,Garby Krasts Salinas
Lehtinen (3rd, 26 points), Vingegaard and Yamamoto are 38 seconds behind. Chhetri and Barbio are between them and the pack, 3’34 behind the leaders.
Gjensidige, De Stijl, Gazelle, Tinkoff and Xero are the main teams working.
The Col du Corbier seems a bit scary: cat. 1, 6,9 km, 7,8%. But it’s not the hardest of the day, far from it. We’re in the heart of the Abondance cheese production area.
The breakaway begins to climb with a lead of 2’22.
Hermans is in difficulties: he’s dropped 3 km from the top. His teammates stay with him.
Guldhammer doesn’t have such problems: he takes 16 more points, for a total of 26. Then come Salinas (12), Schelling (26), Yamamoto (35), Vingegaard (6), Garby (4) and Lyu (2).
Following are 17 km of descent before the Pas de Morgins (cat. 2, 6,5 km, 5%), which will bring us in the Swiss canton of Valais, where we’ll stay until the end.
Meanwhile, the time-trialists, the sprinters and youngsters are dropped from the peloton, which is down to 110 riders.
The break is back at 17 riders for the Pas de Morgins, with a lead of 1’50.
This climb doesn’t seem to be a real difficulty for Guldhammer, who takes 10 more points (36). Then we have Garby (12), Schelling (32), Yamamoto (39) and Lehtinen (28). Hermans still has the lead of the mountain classification, but he’s been dropped again.
To come are 33 km of downhill and flat respite, before the 2 HC climbs that are the finish. The yellow jersey’s group has been reduced 49. A group of 15 with Inkelaar and Mamykin is 30 seconds behind them.
There is no sprint in Martigny, so I’ll have a bit of time to talk about the city. It’s situated along the Rhône, but a small and early Rhône. It’s also the 2nd most populated city of the canton, with 20 000 inhabitants, and produces wine! I’ll probably stop to taste that.
As for the race, we have 9 riders opening the road: Guldhammer, Vingegaard, Garby, Salinas, Schelling, Lehtinen, Lyu, Krasts and Yamamoto.
Elissonde, Hermans and Jang are 30 seconds behind them. Potocki will soon be caught by a 67 men peloton, where all the top 20 riders still are.
HC pass time! The col de la Forclaz to begin with (12,7 km, 8%). The break is back to 11, with Elissonde dropped after a big work for his leader.
The peloton is only 1’45 behind. Gazelle sets the pace in the climb, and Hermans is quickly caught.
7 km left to climb, and Garby and Schelling get a gap.
Though it went up to 1’30, this doesn’t last, and 5 riders are together with 1,5 km of climbing left (for this pass).
And guess who’s there to take the 20 points? Of course it’s Guldhammer, who also takes the lead of the best climber classification.
Speaking of that, we can have a look at the state of this classification.
There are 17 km left to ride in this stage, 10 of them being uphill. The yellow jersey’s group is down to 36 men, with all the top 20, except McNulty, who has been working hard in the climb. They are 1’20 behind the breakaway.
10 mark! It’s time for the finish for Schelling, Guldhammer and Garby.
This last climb is 10 km long, with a slope of 8,5% Not a happy time.
With 8 km left, Salinas was very close to make it back, but in the end he’s caught by the peloton, hauled up by Peters and Quintana.
A bit ahead of the 5 km banner, and as our trio still has a gap of nearly a minute, Penasa attacks!
It’s quite brave, under the windy mix of rain and snow that is the weather up here.
Min (16th GC) is dropped, and Peters brings everyone back together. Great work by the Frenchman today.
But Penasa wants more, and he attacks again! He has a 10 seconds gap with 3 km left to climb. Osorio (18th) and Pomoshnikov (20th) are dropped.
2,4 km to climb, and a group of 9 detached itself from the yellow jersey’s group: Dombrowski, Inkelaar, Tenorio, Penasa, Wellens, Bennett, Meintjes and Sivakov.
Under the flamme rouge, the yellow jersey Cattaneo is trying to bridge the gap.
Pinot, Foss and Guldhammer are further down.
700 last meters! Seems like Tenorio, Dombrowski and Wellens will fight for victory!
400m. Cattaneo is trying to join!
200 meters. Dombrowski tries to accelerate, but without any success, and Tenorio is now flying to victory.
And it is a victory! Tenorio will also take the GC lead. Dombrowski is 2nd, Wellens is 3rd.
Cattaneo is 4th.
Then come Meintjes Bennett and Sivakov.
Aular is 8th.
And we have Inkelaar and Pensa to close the top 10.
In the GC, Cattaneo saves a 2nd place ahead of the last stage of the race. He’s 1 minute down to Tenorio, while Dombrowski, Sivakov and the others are more than 2 minutes late. They’ll need to be aggressive tomorrow, if they want to dethrone the Spaniard.
Guldhammer is back in the top 20, and he takes the best climber jersey with a 12 points lead.
Tenorio also takes the head of the points classification. Sivakov still has a nice lead in the best young rider classification, and his team still lead the team classification.
Easier day tomorrow, but let’s hope for a grand finale! Full results Stage:
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