The Criterium General Classification

Did the Criterium du Dauphine show anything about the main GC riders?

Jonas Vingegaard was already testing the waters on the first stage and Evenepoel was caught out by the move but was still able to recover. This certainly showed how Vingegaard is feeling ahead of the Tour de France, attacking on an early stage that would have come down to a bunch sprint otherwise. Stage 4 saw him come second with Matteo Jorgenson finishing in third ahead of Pogacar. The standings changed on the first mountain stage, stage 6, which saw Vingegaard losing 1:01 by coming second, he would come second on the following stage losing yet more time bringing his defacit to just over 1 minute. The last stage would see yet another second place on the stage with the win going to Lenny Martinez. He finished second overall, 59 seconds down.

Tadej Pogacar has been true to himself and started with a win on stage 1, outsprinting Van Der Poel and his GC competitors despite it being reasonably flat which would have suited the pure sprinters more. He was however not the rider who attacked to form the move that lasted until the end, he had been shutting down moves up to that point and only took the win at the last second. He lost time during the TT but was gaining it as soon as the mountains came up. Stage 6 saw him take his second win of the race and take back the yellow jersey. He went on to gain a further 14 seconds on the next stage as well as his 3rd stage win of the race. His second participation giving him a win overall as well as winning the points classification as a result of his three stage wins.

Remco Evenepoel did not have the best result on stage 1 and lost seconds to his competitors due to the bonus seconds awarded to the riders crossing the line in first second and third. On top of that he had to put in considerable effort to bridge the gap formed by Vingegaard and Pogacar ahead of a peloton moving at over 50km/h. He once again showed how good he is in time trials taking the win on stage 4 ahead of the others. However he would lose just under two minutes on the first mountain stage. He would lose a further 2:39 on stage 7 and then another 40 seconds on the last stage, crossing the line with Matteo Jorgenson. He finished the Criterium in 4th place instead of third which would have been more expected.

Florian Lipowitz of Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe was a slight surprise to see on the last step podium and leading the youth classification. He came into that position after stage 6 after gaining time on Remco Evenepoel and would go on to do the same the following day. His lead in the youth classification at the end of stage 8 was 1:43 over Evenepoel. He was 2:38 down on Tadej Pogacar suggesting that he may be another member of the younger generation who are coming to the forefront of pro cycling.

Overall it is clear that there will be a close competition for the yellow jersey at this years Tour de France with Vingegaard and Pogacar on top form and already fighting each other up the side of mountains. Hopefully Roglic and Evenepoel will be fighting each other for the last step on the podium unless a new talent is able to show themselves.