Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 Stage 7 Sunday, June 10 125 km Morzine → Châtel

[Froome19]

froomy has this. ...

Lets hope so...
But will Wiggins and Sky be willing to let him go for it?
Wiggins probably doesnt need him all that much so possibly.....

 

[Libertine Seguros]

So when does the race enter the mountains?

When somebody else takes over the race and makes it actually a standalone race again.

 

[Richeypen]

When somebody else takes over the race and makes it actually a standalone race again.

Yeah because it was a week of sprinter stages last year

 

[will10]

This Dauphine parcours was the poorest in years, I don't see how anyone can deny that. Would another big mountain stage with a summit finish have changed the final result? Probably not by much. But that doesn't make the route any less disappointing. The Dauphine is not much more than a Tour recce now, the last two year's we've even had an identical stage from the Tour in the Dauphine.

 

[roundabout]

Tour has many mountain finishes = Dauphine has many mountain finishes

Tour has many TT kms and less mountains = Dauphine has many TT kms and less mountains

While I always thought of the Dauphine as a mini TdF recently ASO have been trying their best to remove any identity from the race.

 

[classicomano]

Hope TMWK can keep the white

 

[El Pistolero]

Hope TMWK can keep the white

The meek Wilco Kelderman?

 

[manafana]

wont be much of time gaps anywya so wiggins has this in pocket, im thinking moreno for the stage.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I agree with what you are saying but what does'nt help also is the attitude of certain riders to the race like Andy Schleck to the race. I even have my doubts today about Nibali and think he might of been holding back a bit in the end as well. Even if there was a good parcours this sort of approach to it would still contribute to a less than exciting race.

Part of me wants Wiggins to win the Tour for this reason as his preparation will show up the BS approach that other riders have for these races.

It was already headed that way a few years ago, it was just covered for by a couple of things. In 2009, for example, most contenders were happy to ride together (though Basso attacked early in the Ventoux stage, as he was caught and passed by Valverde who himself went early and caught Szmyd at the tête de la course). But apart from Evans - who hadn't yet started accruing the wins that finally made his palmarès worthy of his talent, so was keen on winning as his career was short on them at that point - and Valverde - who was barred from the Tour and had a point to prove - it was raced fairly tepidly.

However, there have typically been some breakout performances at the Dauphiné, even if they may turn out to be false dawns (Fuglsang in '09, Brajkovic in '10, even Sicard to an extent). But these are usually in the mountains of the race. New riders with potential. There aren't that many truly mountainous one week races that can give us a gauge on top level climbers for the future - Catalunya is too early-season to use some of its toughest climbs, País Vasco has mostly short to mid length tough climbs, the US races are a long trek for a lot of teams to bother with, and Portugal has lost too much prestige to really justify the amount of effort required to be competitive for top level teams. Sure there's races like the Vuelta a Burgos, but the Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse are typically the only real proving ground races against a top field, even if that top field is in warmup mode. Now it seems like they are not giving those riders the opportunity to break out by gearing it more than ever into warmup mode and letting riders get a competitive recce in.

The routes have been getting worse for a while. After all, in 2009 the mountains in the TDF were more or less neutered, with only one real HC stage (stage 17) and 3 MTFs (of which one was the <5% Arcalis, and one was the <9km Verbier, neither of which were any real challenge); the Dauphiné that year had its TDF recce stage (MTF on Mont Ventoux), and its long ITT (longer than the Tour that year actually, 42km to 40 in the Tour), but also a short climber's stage (to Briançon) and another tough climbing finish (to Saint-François-Longchamp on the road to Col de la Madeleine).

The independent nature of the Dauphiné, and its identity as a race, are threatened so long as the ASO don't see it as an individual race, and continue to positively encourage it as a "top guns getting miles in the legs" race rather than a "potential oneupmanship ahead of the Tour and proving ground for young aspiring GC riders" race as it has been in the past.

 

[Ferminal]

I hope Rogers drops 16", Evans needs another second place.

 

[dlwssonic]

I hope Rogers drops 16", Evans needs another second place.

lol yeah evans said he wants another second place.
5 second places in the dauphine would be epic!

 

[Trofinios]

I sure hope Sky goes for the stage win today. If Wiggins is in the front group with the other favourites at the bottom of the final climb, there is no reason for Sky not to let Froome or someone else try to win the stage. Why not let EBH set a murderous pace and leave off Froome for a late attack.

 

[Winterfold]

From the CN race report:

Evans had a double purpose in attacking at the end. “I was hoping for a little bit of a chance for the stage (win)," he said on the BMC website. "But I also heard Tony Martin was dropped on the Joux-Plane and I wanted to maintain the gap on him."

 

[Lexman]

He was in the break today Why would he go into break if he didnt push himslef.

But yeah, likely to go into break. Doubt he's strong enough to win.

Didn't see the stage yesterday, just the results, so once he was caught he let it go...

 

[Mellow Velo]

Live coverage vary quite a bit today, so feeds could be a little trickier.
Rai Sport 2 first up again, at 12-55 CET
Then there's a 25 minute wait for France 3 (13-25CET)
Eurosport unlikely to be of much use, since they have only 30 minutes of coverage scheduled. (14-15 to 14-45CET)

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Live coverage vary quite a bit today, so feeds could be a little trickier.
Rai Sport 2 first up again, at 12-55 CET
Then there's a 25 minute wait for France 3 (13-25CET)
Eurosport unlikely to be of much use, since they have only 30 minutes of coverage scheduled. (14-15 to 14-45CET)

Eurosport showing a repeat of the French open semis instead. Incredible.

 

[GazelleFormula]

Short stage that starts with a downhill. This will be a mean first hour average.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Short stage that starts with a downhill. This will be a mean first hour average.

2nd half of the first hour is uphill, if they're planning on going more than 35kph

 

[maltiv]

Thomas Voeckler quits the race.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Thomas Voeckler quits the race.

Doesn't look like a repeat is on the cards.

 

[GazelleFormula]

2nd half of the first hour is uphill, if they're planning on going more than 35kph

Yeah, but given the 124k they will not take it easy uphill.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

They'll go hard, but the recorded speed figure won't be out of the ordinary.

 

[dlwssonic]

Contacted by letour.fr, Europcar’s directeur sportif Andy Flickinger explained why Thomas Voeckler pulled out: “He felt a knee injury since yesterday. It’s a precautionary decision to stop. It doesn’t seem too bad but we don’t want the injury to get worse.”

 

[GazelleFormula]

They'll go hard, but the recorded speed figure won't be out of the ordinary.

48,6 km/h. Pretty damn fast considering that they are already halfway up the second climb of the day.

The eight attackers are united at the front at km 51 with 2.15 over the peloton: Fofonov (AST), Rolland (EUC), Popovych (RNT), Le Mével (GRM), Chavanel and Vandenbergh (OPQ), Coppel (ALM) and Westra (VCD).

 

[Mellow Velo]

48,6 km/h. Pretty damn fast considering that they are already halfway up the second climb of the day.

The eight attackers are united at the front at km 51 with 2.15 over the peloton: Fofonov (AST), Rolland (EUC), Popovych (RNT), Le Mével (GRM), Chavanel and Vandenbergh (OPQ), Coppel (ALM) and Westra (VCD).

Yet only about on the second fastest predicted schedule.