Critérium du Dauphiné 08/12 > 08/16/20

[BlueRoads]

Crazy year. The Dauphiné, although too late, is still approaching so fast. Let's take a short look at climbs, climbs and then, climbs:

Jakob Fuglsang will not win this because he's not there. Neither is Evenepoel. Forget about the Giro guys. Give Carapaz a chance to heal, Simon Yates a chance to get in form and Evenepoel a chance to win Lombardia. But all the Tour guys want to be in France as soon as possible and they want to race. Go!

 

[Red Rick]

5 more Roglic leadouts.

Bennett is gonna get sick of it by stage 4.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

5 more Roglic leadouts.

Bennett is gonna get sick of it by stage 4.

 

[RedheadDane]

Uhm... I think you might have made a mistake with the dating. I get that you're trying to use US-style MM/DD/YY format, but as long as this race-break has felt, I don't think we had an extra 10 months tucked in there...

 

[Alexandre B.]

Madeleine Madness.

 

[Jspear]

Let’s see if enough of these climbs gives Bernal an advantage over Roglic.

 

[Koronin]

I'll take the field. However, I'm hoping Mas shows better form than he did about 2 weeks ago.

 

[TomLPC]

Bloody hell that's a bit of a stiff route isn't it, i suspect this might hinder people already in blistering form a bit because of the proximity, could be good for some of the giro guys as a modified early season peak

 

[bajbar]

5 more Roglic leadouts.

Bennett is gonna get sick of it by stage 4.

Well, Rogla will need a new lead-out man since Bennet is not riding the Dauphine. But I have heard that a certain Wout Van Aert has been dropping Bennet on the climbs in Tignes, so problem solved!

 

[bob.a.feet]

This route is so stupid I love it. But why no downhill finish?

The final showdown before the 2020 Tour de France. Insane lineup - looks like all of the Tour favourites will be there.

Jumbo will be strong again, but I imagine Ineos will have picked up a bit. It will be interesting to see how Buchmann's handled the lockdown, and how Pogacar will be in the mountains. How will Pinot and Landa's form be coming along? Will Enric Mas finally show us something? Alaphilippe's climbing will be intriguing; he says he's not targeting the GC at the Tour, but with a route made just for him it's hard to believe him - especially when he finds himself in yellow in the first week! And of course, after Ineos's poor showing this weekend, how will Sivakov fit into the team. He might well play an absolutely crucial role in the Tour. Could he be a joint leader?

This week should answer a lot of these questions, but hopefully not all - you need a little mystery heading into the Tour. One question that will be answered is 'who will win the Dauphiné?' It could be anyone...

 

[Rollthedice]

Now that's exactly Watts been missing in the Jumbo train.

 

[Escarabajo]

Everyone is going to be here except Aru. I don't think we are missing anyone that will target the Tour.

 

[johnymax]

5 MTFs? Almost makes me miss a flat sprinters' stage...Nah

 

[Mayomaniac]

The fact that Formolo is racing this one instead of the Giro di Lombardia sucks

 

[Lequack]

The fact that Formolo is racing this one instead of the Giro di Lombardia sucks

I guess he knows Remco has that in his bag already.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I guess he knows Remco has that in his bag already.

A 2 men sprint between the 2 of them would actually be interesting, who'd win?
I guess it's mainly because they want him to race with Pogi as his captain before the Tour, but still.

 

[klintE]

5 stage race with 5 MTF stages? Well, that escalated quickly.

 

[hayneplane]

Fabulous course. A stage race jacked up on steroids to enhance the peaks and no boring flat or transitional filler.

A 30km ITT on day 3 would have been perfect but this should be carnage.

So many pretenders will drop out of top 5 contention within 2 stages leading to breakaways with high class riders and the chance for a GC relevant guy to try to slip away unnoticed.

The form and the parcours suggest Roglic. Would be nice to see some form from Bardet and Pinot.

 

[SafeBet]

The fact that Formolo is racing this one instead of the Giro di Lombardia sucks

Terrible decision.

 

[ice&fire]

Apparently they had difficulties finding climbs for MTFs so they're doing one of them two days in a row.

 

[Tonton]

Roglic has to be the favorite. Brutal route. I love it. Mental warfare begins and a bad showing could be devastating with little time left before the Tour. If you suck, I don't think that you have time to turn it around. Win or lose, the big guys need to get something positive out of this bike race.

Now, we can argue, did so and so peak too early? What are Ineos and Jumbo be with their full squad? Still, I thing that the CdD will give us a pretty good idea of the forces in presence. Can't wait!

 

[Koronin]

For anyone in the US it appears NBCsports is showing this at 2am in the morning tape delayed. Air date says 1/1/20 so if you have your DVR set to record you have to manually adjust it so it will record. I don't have Gold so no idea if it's showing up there yet or not.

 

[Keram]

CDD used to have some sprint or rolling stages, right? Why did they plan this monstrosity? Anyway I like it. I looking forward to Ineos vs Jumbo showdown. And Pogacar.

 

[dutchdescent]

TLMRP FTW STG 2!!!!

 

[tobydawq]

The fact that Formolo is racing this one instead of the Giro di Lombardia sucks

You could say that for a lot more of the participants!

Take Roglic, for example. He demonstrated that he is in fantastic shape already, and to me he seems like the only guy who wouldn't be dropped by Remco at the moment.

Why not go for a monument?