Critérium du Dauphiné 2025, June 8 - 15

[Unchained]

By the way, having made my disdain for sprint stages known, I'm absolutely thrilled to see a sharp hill toward the end of the stage that can cull out some of the "sprint specialists." That made the entire stage.
As far as "sprinters" go, I genuinely don't care if you're super fast over like 300 meters. Good on you, that's what track racing is for. The only reason we have flat stages is 1) advertising for tourism, and 2) let the GC contenders rest.

This bummed me out a little because I thought Ben Healy and maybe Matteo Jorgenson would have made that selection because of the slight hill..wasn't to be! EF is going to have to do something really bold to get back... Already.

 

[Lequack]

Lanterne rouge with Patrick & Benji

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JcyBubfTaQ

 

[Lequack]

Is that an official UAE child? Or just a big fan.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1931699789403431201

View: https://x.com/MundoAthleticC/status/1931699789403431201

 

[Sciatic]

Remco, needs to be smarter about this stuff.
Going across was not necessary, just wasted energy.
And if you do go across, he should have raced more like Vingegaard. Now all he did was allow his main rivals to take bonies.

He was just racing. it’s not the Tour yet, saving every once of energy isn’t necessary here. It was him and MVP that kept the gap to the peloton with longer pulls; he didn’t need to do that but it gave us great spectacle.

 

[Sciatic]

Yeah, but I think the point is, that Pogi won't be able to "out-kick" Jonas this year, like he did last year.

He has clearly worked on becoming more explosive.

What it means to the other parts of his abilities remains to be seen.

You are extrapolating a lot from a single sample. As usual in the Dauphine, we don’t know where riders are in their training schedule. And this was the 1st racing after altitude, even they weren’t sure how their bodies would respond.

 

[Sciatic]

Three of the best go 1, 2, 3!

The most decorated, elite “final group” ever?

 

[Sciatic]

Healy 3:49 down?

WTF?

He was at the head of the EF train at times when peloton was just rolling on the flat, and led out a teammate on the hill with initial GC attacks. So my assumption he’s just focused on getting a stage win later in race.

 

[Sciatic]

He said he felt he wasn't recovering well from his efforts.

Still, usually Van der Poel is really bad this time of the season, so him doing this actually bodes well for him to actually do a lot on these type of TdF stages. And if it comes to 2 minute uphill sprints I will blindly back Van der Poel over the likes of Pogacar.

The way he looked after the finish certainly looked that way: he was still bent over his bars gasping while the others were calmly chatting.

 

[Peyroteo94]

We just had the first stage and I'm already salivating for more. My main hope for this race is not having crashes and appreciate what aliens can do in their max power. There is really no debate Pogacar can make races boring but when Vingegaard is at his best, we normally have a race for the ages. Remco looks better too, I don't believe he will be close to these 2 but he still can animate the race. What a great season we are having and I hope it will only get better.
Chapeau to all!

 

[Andy262]

Woah, I’ve not even watched this yet but that first 4 is ridiculous for Stage 1 of the Dauphine

 

[AmRacer]

We just had the first stage and I'm already salivating for more. My main hope for this race is not having crashes and appreciate what aliens can do in their max power. There is really no debate Pogacar can make races boring but when Vingegaard is at his best, we normally have a race for the ages. Remco looks better too, I don't believe he will be close to these 2 but he still can animate the race. What a great season we are having and I hope it will only get better.
Chapeau to all!

Vingegaard also make races 'boring' when Pogi isn't there, most of the time.

 

[Oldman]

This bummed me out a little because I thought Ben Healy and maybe Matteo Jorgenson would have made that selection because of the slight hill..wasn't to be! EF is going to have to do something really bold to get back... Already.

Looked like Matteo was there to help guard a gap for Jonas and the others to get clear. I'm sure there was some selective, discreet blocking going on by teams to the finish.
It was a fun first stage, though!

 

[Oldman]

The way he looked after the finish certainly looked that way: he was still bent over his bars gasping while the others were calmly chatting.

That also hints at how strong/fast he is naturally. He'll need the rest of the Dauphine to get some form from the looks of things. Still, stellar finish and he had the last big share of pulling to the line.

 

[tobydawq]

I just watched the highlights only after seeing the result on pcs. I thought this was a spring day? :O

No, it's summer.

 

[jmdirt]

and nobody in their right mind would think he ever matched a healthy Pogacar in that respect.

Good, that frees me up then.

 

[AnotherArmChair]

Just watched the highlights

Vingegaard looks very good on the climbs ...hope its not all too soon
Not sure how strong Remco's team is
Buitrago in the move of the day ...or maybe he wants to break into the top 6 riders group

Healy sitting up at the end is good as he never does this and usually just keeps going always ...maybe he is learning to pick and chose. also maybe undercooked and setting his goals on last week of the tour for stages or maybe wants to try at the end of the week for a stage and needs to lose time

it looks like it another tour with Pog and Vinge following each other everywhere and Rewmco in tow

 

[HashRouge]

That was great fun to watch. MdvP, Pog, Remco and Jonas doing a YOLO breakaway to the line on a "boring" sprint stage was not on my bingo card for today's race. Nor was Jonas in green. Highly entertaining, bodes well for the Tour (and the rest of the Dauphine)!

 

[noob]

No, it's summer.

Just now noticing my autocorroct. Thank you. But also it's summer says a lot not the least about Jonas, so it's accurate also to describe their alien shapes

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

No, it's summer.

Where I am it's still April.
Result today confirms it.

 

[KoopaCycling]

He was just racing. it’s not the Tour yet, saving every once of energy isn’t necessary here. It was him and MVP that kept the gap to the peloton with longer pulls; he didn’t need to do that but it gave us great spectacle.

I do not think this race will be decided by seconds. But gifting them away isn't a smart move. At the end of the day, dauphine is still a nice GC race, even if it is also just prep for the tour.

 

[Lequack]

So the shorter cranks are working for Vingegaard. Now he's gained flat sprinting power, imagine what he could do with even shorter cranks.

 

[Sciatic]

I do not think this race will be decided by seconds. But gifting them away isn't a smart move. At the end of the day, dauphine is still a nice GC race, even if it is also just prep for the tour.

To go back to your original point, if he didn’t chase onto elite group of 4 that may have gifted the seconds as well. Or was your main point that once he was in that group he shouldn’t have worked, in which case the peloton probably catches them? That probably would have eliminated the loss of time because other riders would have top 3’d the stage. But as a fan I was glad to see him (and MVDP) put in hard pulls to keep the group away.

 

[Andy262]

Is that an official UAE child? Or just a big fan.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1931699789403431201

View: https://x.com/MundoAthleticC/status/1931699789403431201

Maybe the kids are connected to the team but whether or not, what other sport does a genuine global superstar high 5 the kids just after the finish. Chapeau Tadej!

 

[Red Rick]

Maybe the kids are connected to the team but whether or not, what other sport does a genuine global superstar high 5 the kids just after the finish. Chapeau Tadej!

Well, that's nearly purely an availability thing.

Kids are ludicrously easy PR any athlete would farm this hard.

 

[Andy262]

Well, that's nearly purely an availability thing.

Kids are ludicrously easy PR any athlete would farm this hard.

I don’t think he’s as cynical as you!