2016 Critérium du Dauphiné, 2.UWT, June 5-12

[Miburo]

Re:

Yeah, there is absolutely zero chance it will get into Froome's head. If anything, this result was fairly positive. He was always fairly bad in the beginning of Dauphine, and this time he didn't lose much at all.

13 seconds in 4km isn't much?

Can you tell me when Contador was actually at his best in the dauphine?

 

[dacooley]

Re: Re:

Yeah, there is absolutely zero chance it will get into Froome's head. If anything, this result was fairly positive. He was always fairly bad in the beginning of Dauphine, and this time he didn't lose much at all.

13 seconds in 4km isn't much?

Can you tell me when Contador was actually at his best in the dauphine?

When was any big tour contender at his best in the Dauphine?

To me it's very transparent. Bertie delivered one more fantastic perfomance. Does he have a great room for improvement prior the Tour? For sure. Does it make him a guy to beat in the Tour? Yes, if he dominates froome so convincingly on Saturday's stage.

 

[amih77]

Re:

Yeah, there is absolutely zero chance it will get into Froome's head. If anything, this result was fairly positive. He was always fairly bad in the beginning of Dauphine, and this time he didn't lose much at all.

In 2014 he won the prologue and the 1st stage up Col du Beal.

 

[Praying Mantis]

Stage 1, Cluses → Saint-Vulbas (186 km, Flat)

Monday, June 6th - Stage info - Live ticker - Weather, Start - Weather, Finish
Starts at 12:45 - Live video 15:40 - Finish at 17:10 (CEST)

Profile:

Mountain passes & hills:
Km 31.0 - Côte de Mornex 1.6 kilometre-long climb at 6.4% - category 4
Km 68.5 - Côte de Sallenôves 1.3 kilometre-long climb at 5.7% - category 4
Km 75.0 - Côte de Chilly 1.6 kilometre-long climb at 7.3% - category 4
Km 134.0 - Côte de Prémeyzel 0.9 kilometre-long climb at 6.6% - category 4

Last kilometer:

Current standings:

 

[DFA123]

So, will it be Kristoff v Bouhanni today? Would be nice to see Degenkolb in the mix, but it looked like he still lacked sharpness in California.

It looks like Kristoff has changed his training preparation from last year, to make him more competitive at the Tour - doing Dauphine instead of Suisse. Will be interesting to see what kind of shape he is in, as he wasn't overly impressive in California.

Bouhanni has his first choice lead out train and has been on great form in the last few weeks, so perhaps should be considered a slight favourite. It seems like he's on the verge of making a really big breakthrough and stepping up to seriously challenge Greipel - but he's not quite there yet.

It's difficult to see anyone else taking the win on such an easy stage to control. Lotto-NL all saved themselves yesterday, so should be very fresh to help Bennett - but he's just not an elite level sprinter.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Re: Re:

Yeah, there is absolutely zero chance it will get into Froome's head. If anything, this result was fairly positive. He was always fairly bad in the beginning of Dauphine, and this time he didn't lose much at all.

13 seconds in 4km isn't much?

Can you tell me when Contador was actually at his best in the dauphine?

I don't know what you're arguing, but most expected Contador to be in better form than Froome. Not "at his best," though, obviously. No serious GT contender would be, I'd hope.

13 seconds in 4kms at almost 10% is not much at all, IMO. We shall see what the last few stages will bring. If Contador is a bit better and can drop him, but doesn't straight up embarrass him - no problem at all. The first key TDF stages are still almost a month away.

 

[pablohidalgo7]

Re:

So, will it be Kristoff v Bouhanni today? Would be nice to see Degenkolb in the mix, but it looked like he still lacked sharpness in California.

It looks like Kristoff has changed his training preparation from last year, to make him more competitive at the Tour - doing Dauphine instead of Suisse. Will be interesting to see what kind of shape he is in, as he wasn't overly impressive in California.

Bouhanni has his first choice lead out train and has been on great form in the last few weeks, so perhaps should be considered a slight favourite. It seems like he's on the verge of making a really big breakthrough and stepping up to seriously challenge Greipel - but he's not quite there yet.

It's difficult to see anyone else taking the win on such an easy stage to control. Lotto-NL all saved themselves yesterday, so should be very fresh to help Bennett - but he's just not an elite level sprinter.

George Bennet is a climber, Hofland is the fast man of Lotto Nl in this race.
Sam bennet is the sprinter, but he races for BORA not for Lotto.

 

[Homo Helveticus]

Bouhanni first across the line, then he's disqualified for sprinting all over the place and Kristoff wins the stage.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

So, will it be Kristoff v Bouhanni today? Would be nice to see Degenkolb in the mix, but it looked like he still lacked sharpness in California.

It looks like Kristoff has changed his training preparation from last year, to make him more competitive at the Tour - doing Dauphine instead of Suisse. Will be interesting to see what kind of shape he is in, as he wasn't overly impressive in California.

Bouhanni has his first choice lead out train and has been on great form in the last few weeks, so perhaps should be considered a slight favourite. It seems like he's on the verge of making a really big breakthrough and stepping up to seriously challenge Greipel - but he's not quite there yet.

It's difficult to see anyone else taking the win on such an easy stage to control. Lotto-NL all saved themselves yesterday, so should be very fresh to help Bennett - but he's just not an elite level sprinter.

George Bennet is a climber, Hofland is the fast man of Lotto Nl in this race.
Sam bennet is the sprinter, but he races for BORA not for Lotto.

Well spotted. Had a bit of a brain fade there

Looking at the result yesterday, Sam Bennett came in over 5 minutes down. Think that's the definition of saving yourself - he took 40% longer than Contador.

 

[ILovecycling]

Hopefuly a sprint without crashes and saxo controlling the stage, tomorrow will be more interesting (and Im not goong to see it lol)

Bouhanni ftw

 

[railxmig]

Sadly couldn't watch yesterday's stage live so nedded to stick with re-runs. I know that Contador likes to be out of the saddle (his movements then are majestic) but yesterday it looked like 2x speed up Horner impersonation. Great result by LRP and Dan Martin too. Alberto and Porte looked very muscular in my eyes. I hope both Froome and Contador will end up without injuries or sickness so in Tour i could see their and Quintana's A game. But i wonder how Alberto will fare on longer climbs, he looks quite muscular for me and seems to have a good bit of punch this year.

I think Bardet could be the dark horse for the win now. This year's Talansky. A decent TT has kept him in contention and he's just about low profile enough to perhaps be allowed up the road while Froome, Contador and Porte all look at each other.

He knows the roads well and, with some rain and thunderstorms forecast, he may be prepared to take a few more risks with his handling to get an advantage.

That's a plausible theory. He knows how to risk when it's needed and last year's Dauphine showed he's not afraid to risk in less prestigious (compared to TdF ofc) races. Another try could be Diego Rosa who could be a backup for Rigoberto Aru Aru (i missed his hair but i trust you in this regard). He's not afraid of breakaways either.

Champagne for Flo! Bravo Alberto: excellent for morale. Very good for performance by Froome. Porte did a bit better than I was expecting. And Balaphilippe had a great day. Tibopino, not a surprise: we saw at the VaPV that such a course isn't for him. I was expecting better, tho. Aru has been less than stellar so far this season...and a strong Team Sky. Even Kirby wasn't (that) bad .

Calling LRP as "pure climber", bragging about Poels and some other minor nitpicks didn't make a good impression of him on that particular day, but strangely i actually like Kirby. He may be biased or awful but his voice is very nice and he's not boring when nothing happens. It's just that i'm not interested in cycling technicalities, i don't even have a bike.

Pinot better than Rolland or Aru but wouldn't call his performance as expected. I think he needs to step up his game quickly if he wants to challenge for the podium or best french rider in TdF. Ok, Bardet might be a better puncher of them but still he ended up slower than LRP, Rosa or Navarro who i don't remember being that good on shorter climbs. We'll see how he'll fare in last two or three stages.

Yes, "Balaphilippe" and Kwiatkowski had an exceptionally good day. I didn't expeced them to be that good. I thought Alaphilippe will develop more into a Ardennes specialist who would try to challenge Flanders in a couple of years but he may try to be the next Valve. I doubt he'll ever produce a GT podium but maybe top 5 at Giro or weaker Vuelta at best. He should however win at least one monument ranging from AGR to Lombardia.

 

[DFA123]

That's a plausible theory. He knows how to risk when it's needed and last year's Dauphine showed he's not afraid to risk in less prestigious (compared to TdF ofc) races. Another try could be Diego Rosa who could be a backup for Rigoberto Aru Aru (i missed his hair but i trust you in this regard). He's not afraid of breakaways either.

I think Bardet could really step up in the next couple of years and start seriously contesting for the GC at stage races and GTs. Despite being a similar age, he's always been two or three years behind Pinot in terms of development, but I think he has the potential to be a better climber than Pinot, and he's a way better bike handler. He's even shown a bit of potential in TTs - although needs some more focused work on them.

The big problem is that he's at AG2R, who just seem to let riders drift without much focus and without really fulfilling their potential.

 

[Homo Helveticus]

Few mountains jersey points on offer today. If I was one of the cyclists in the breakaway I wouldn't bother to sprint for points unless I planned another breakaway at some stage later in the week. Better to save energy for the final sprint if the breakaway gets to the line.

 

[GP Blanco]

Re:

Few mountains jersey points on offer today. If I was one of the cyclists in the breakaway I wouldn't bother to sprint for points unless I planned another breakaway at some stage later in the week. Better to save energy for the final sprint if the breakaway gets to the line.

The breakaway won't make it besides it is always nice to wear a jersey even if it is only for one day.

 

[The Hitch]

Re:

Whether we'll see the Tour teaser depends on Froome's intentions.
He hasn't been bothered with minor goals so far this season. Everything was subordinated to his summer goals.
And Thomas is riding TdS, it appears. Contador will be relieved.

Thats strange.

In 2012-13 Sky acted like its impossible to do well in the tour without winning every single race before. This was one of those marginal gains no one had ever considered before.

Now they are abandoning it?

 

[bajbar]

Re: Re:

Few mountains jersey points on offer today. If I was one of the cyclists in the breakaway I wouldn't bother to sprint for points unless I planned another breakaway at some stage later in the week. Better to save energy for the final sprint if the breakaway gets to the line.

The breakaway won't make it besides it is always nice to wear a jersey even if it is only for one day.

Contador has 10 points, only 4 on offer today...

 

[perico]

Re: Re:

Whether we'll see the Tour teaser depends on Froome's intentions.
He hasn't been bothered with minor goals so far this season. Everything was subordinated to his summer goals.
And Thomas is riding TdS, it appears. Contador will be relieved.

Thats strange.

In 2012-13 Sky acted like its impossible to do well in the tour without winning every single race before. This was one of those marginal gains no one had ever considered before.

Now they are abandoning it?

LOL. Shifty bunch.

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

Whether we'll see the Tour teaser depends on Froome's intentions.
He hasn't been bothered with minor goals so far this season. Everything was subordinated to his summer goals.
And Thomas is riding TdS, it appears. Contador will be relieved.

Thats strange.

In 2012-13 Sky acted like its impossible to do well in the tour without winning every single race before. This was one of those marginal gains no one had ever considered before.

Now they are abandoning it?

it is getting abandoned due to the fact Froome will be going for the Olympics and the Vuelta after the tour

 

[Kokoso]

Re:

Looks like Alberto will be isolated in the mountains again

I wouldn't give up on Kreuziger yet, it wasn't so tragic. Sure, we would like to see him higher (as he himself would), but this climb never suited him and he wasn't even preparing for Dauphine. This considered, it gives some hopes for Tour (or even Dauphine).

 

[sir fly]

Re: Re:

Whether we'll see the Tour teaser depends on Froome's intentions.
He hasn't been bothered with minor goals so far this season. Everything was subordinated to his summer goals.
And Thomas is riding TdS, it appears. Contador will be relieved.

Thats strange.

In 2012-13 Sky acted like its impossible to do well in the tour without winning every single race before. This was one of those marginal gains no one had ever considered before.

Now they are abandoning it?

How about 2014-15?

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Whether we'll see the Tour teaser depends on Froome's intentions.
He hasn't been bothered with minor goals so far this season. Everything was subordinated to his summer goals.
And Thomas is riding TdS, it appears. Contador will be relieved.

Thats strange.

In 2012-13 Sky acted like its impossible to do well in the tour without winning every single race before. This was one of those marginal gains no one had ever considered before.

Now they are abandoning it?

it is getting abandoned due to the fact Froome will be going for the Olympics and the Vuelta after the tour

If Froome is messing around with his well-perfected Tour preparation, because he wants to be in top form for the Olympics, then he's an idiot.

He's got no chance in the road race. On top form he's an outside bet for the TT, but winning the TdF is worth way more than getting a TT medal - especially considering he already has one.

 

[railxmig]

Re:

Few mountains jersey points on offer today. If I was one of the cyclists in the breakaway I wouldn't bother to sprint for points unless I planned another breakaway at some stage later in the week. Better to save energy for the final sprint if the breakaway gets to the line.

This is the first road stage of this Dauphine. I doubt a breakaway will ever get to the finish line on such stage. But being in a breakaway on today's stage could be a valuable prep for the Bern stage in TdF which propably will result in a breakaway win and this stage is relatively similar to the Bern one.

I think Bardet could really step up in the next couple of years and start seriously contesting for the GC at stage races and GTs. Despite being a similar age, he's always been two or three years behind Pinot in terms of development, but I think he has the potential to be a better climber than Pinot, and he's a way better bike handler. He's even shown a bit of potential in TTs - although needs some more focused work on them.

The big problem is that he's at AG2R, who just seem to let riders drift without much focus and without really fulfilling their potential.

I actually consider Bardet as an outside challenger for top 5 in TdF. Maybe it's too much for him right now but if he'll survive first week then a top 10 could be within reach (in his optimal form ofc). The competition to be the best french rider should motivate him enough to try compete for GC. AG2R is allways very effective in the mountains but the question is if they'll be more focused on Bardet or team competition. But i'm very bad at predicting. I predicted back in 2010-2012 that Valls Ferri, Jeanesson, Dupont, Reichenbach and Taraamae will threaten the old guys in GC. Now i'm predicting Patrick Konrad and Buchmann and i wonder how this one will end.

 

[portugal11]

Giant is chasing the break. Degenkolb ftw!!!

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

Is he going for GC in the Tour or will he go stagehunt + ORR + Vuelta GC?

I think he will fight for the GC at the beginning, changing goals in the middle of the race (like last year), go to Río to be a domestique for Valverde and going full *** in Vuelta + Lombardia.

And then retire at the end of the year

His contract ends this year? Also, he really shouldn't slave for Valverde unless the situation is really dire. Tactical advantage like in 2013 is way better, but then its Valverde we're talking about. Wouldn't fault Purito for not doing one pedal stroke for Valverde really

If i would be Purito, i would indeed not work anymore for Valverde. Just as Bala should not work for Purito. It just doesn't work. Too much has happened. Imagine Purito riding his socks off to get Valverde a big win

 

[Jspear]

Docker's mustache looks pitiful!