[Closed] Critérium du Dauphiné 2020 - may contain 'Spoilers'

Not just a stellar line up. A slightly mad shortened course as well. Every finish is uphill. Stage 2 is officially a (merely) "hilly" stage but it finishes on top of a hors-categorie climb.

and no time trial for Dumoulin Roglic & Froome, one for the whisps... ol' Quintana might fancy his chances

Highlights on itv4 - https://www.itv.com/itvcycling/articles/watch-highlights-of-the-2020-criterium-du-dauphine-on-itv4

Finally I get a chance to control the TV remote of an evening! No more cooking or property programmes!!

we get the first taster of froome vs bernal vs thomas and Dumoulin vs Roglic

If you ignore Tour de L'Ain which finished yesterday.

we get the first taster of froome vs bernal vs thomas

Except for the Tour de l'Ain over the weekend where Bernal came second to Roglic by a few seconds having dropped Froome and Thomas for over 10 minutes on the final day (froome eventually fininshed 26 minutes down), or the Route de l'Occitainie last week where Bernal also won again (with Sivakov 2nd) and Froome again finshed down the rankings (37th, over 9 minutes down)

Although to be fair, it could be that Froome was performing domestique duties and getting race rady for the Dauphiné - but my money's on Bernal and Thomas for the TDF, and Carapaz for the Giro, leaving Froome and Sivakov battling for the Vuelta

missed that one 🙂

Highlights on itv4

we get the first taster of froome vs bernal vs thomas and Dumoulin vs Roglic.

As said Jumbo have kicked Ineos' arse twice already this season quite comprehensively!

and not forgetting rigoberto vs tejay

Will the latter be using Puteline?

could be that Froome was performing domestique duties and getting race rady for the Dauphiné

Hi posted a pic on his instagram and commented he was just starting to come into form.

I don’t think Froome will make the TDF squad, but one thing Sky/Ineos have been good at is peaking at the correct time. I’m not reading too much into it yet. TDF is going to be exciting this year, the other teams have strengthened, I don’t think Ineos have gotten weaker (Froome aside), so should be a heck of a contest.
I love the Dauphine normally, but it’s a strange year and for some reason I’m not seeing this race as important as other years gone by. Still looking forward to it, but just a bit less excited.

Froome is bluffing.

He's using the pre-season to make himself look past-it. A shadow of his pre-injury self.

A key part of this plan is not winning the Dauphiné. He'll go for a hill attack then pretend to crack, lose time and put himself out of the running.

He'll ride the tour ostensibly as a domestique to Bernal / Thomas "for old time's sake". No one will worry about him on the road. Then, late in week 3, he'll go from long range, and no one will chase. He'll bash out 6.5W/kg for a couple of hours and by the time people realise he was bluffing all along, he'll be uncatchable.

Froome to win the tour.

Froome is not bluffing, he does not have the form he might have had in a normal year, even without coming back from injury. Agree that he will not do much in the Dauphine as its about showing stats to uncle Dave to decide the leader(s) in the tour. What he does have going for him when/if we get to the tour is experience, so he has a chance.

Bernal looked wobbly yesterday. Castroviejo dropped him and had to go back. No way that was the plan. He did put in a showing at the end though.

Roglic looked like he was 'on a ride to the shops'

It's wide open for the tour, any one of 10 have a good chance, as does the whole thing getting called off.

I've even coughed up to Eurosport for a couple of months

Wow, just seen the Ineos line-up for the Dauphiné

https://twitter.com/INEOSGrenadiers/status/1292809876536795137

That is a HELLA strong team for a climbing race

but then the Jumbo Visma team also looks strong

https://twitter.com/JumboVismaRoad/status/1293082520872005633

I am VERY MUCH looking forward to this race. I may have to purchase some alcoholic beverages to enjoy whil I watch

On now on Eurosport. Good to see the skinny boys out.

Allan Phillips must be a good bet for today...

Anyone with GCN app... Can you use the GCN Race TV on a PC?

I've got the app on my phone and works fine, but would love to see it on the computer monitor whilst at work, so need to log into the website.

Logging into GCN keeps bringing up a sign in error when I select the race.

Works fine in the app.

Is a small screen my only option?

are we allowed spoilers?
Think its just gcn app and casting at moment not pc.

Edit, spoilers allowed?

I've got GCN Racepass and Eurosport Player but GCN seems to be dependent on Eurosport for its coverage so if it hasn't started on Europsort it's not on GCN?

yeah, bloody Cyclocross rider spoiling it for everyone ! 😀

Thanks mods!!!!
Wout Van Aert...new Sagan Strada Bianca, Milan San Remo and today, seriously impressive, could we be seeing the next green jersey winner at le tour.

Bernal looked bloody strong too!

Froome less so ☹️

Whatever Froome was doing today I reckon it was on purpose, no way is he getting dropped from a group that big unless there's some ulterior motive - especially given the way he was happily chatting to Castroviejo as he went out the back.

Couple of days losing loads of time, gets in the breakaway later in the race, tows Bernal to glory. Or something.

Just watched the end of the Piemonte. Bet Van der Poel wishes he singed for Jumbo!!

Wout Van Aert looked SO smooth in that sprint, like he was just nipping off the front to practice his form. Really cool to see him getting a bit more limelight after a couple of years of really gutsy and impressive racing.

could we be seeing the next green jersey winner at le tour

I doubt it. He might sneak the odd stage, but he'll be too busy on team duty at the tour to chase jersey points.

tows Bernal to glory.

Given a place at the Tour is at stake doubt he’d do that.

I wonder if his new team are looking at the contract for escape clauses?

Froome will be fascinating to watch. There are a number of hypothesis:
1. Lose some time so you can go in the break later in the race.
2. He’s cooked and has no form.
3. He’s sand bagging and will be rip up the Tour.
4. He’s saving myself for later in the race as a super domestique.
5. He’s already been told he’s not going to throw Tour and so doesn’t give a toss.
My instinct is either 4. Woult Poels would often be dropped early in a race only to be really useful in the last week to so. Bit odd for a shorter race but it is possible if he’s not the leader.

1 or 4 seem the most likely. It looked like he let it go today, he certainly wasnt pushing to stay in the bunch

Realistically what's the Dauphine worth to froome? Not much, so why not hide his form, help the team and show himself to be gracious?

He's got history of domestiquing, last year he was working for Sivakov and Geogahan-Hart in the early season races.

Plus, I reckon his contract says he's guaranteed a tour place unless his numbers are way off and he seems to relaxed for that to be concerning him.

But unless he’s been told to that by Dave, it’s risky given that this is the last chance to prove himself for the Tour.

Given the wiggins/froome 2012 issues and froome's subsequent book I reckon his place on the tour team is contractually nailed down and the reason he's leaving is he's not getting the same deal again.

Given the tech available Brailsford will know exactly what froome's form is without seeing it in a fairly meaningless couple of races.

Think its just gcn app and casting at moment not pc.

They are working on PC based too. Apparently to be available "really soon".

Those ketones are really working for jumbo 🤣

WVA leading the peleton up the climb in yellow 🙂

On the final climb now. Ready to kick off.

Ineos doing Sky, I mean Ineos...

It appears Froome is either still bluffing or is way off form. My money is on the latter. No Tour for him.

Unless he's riding his way in - other than Egan the rest of the Team only lasted another 5 minutes, what an implosion.

I wonder if Froome has something that says he can to the TdF if he's within the top "X" (4?) Ineos finishers, or in the bunch with ... to go
He does seem to just "opt" out

As it happens, Ineos could've done with him at the end of it today
(or is Bernal sandbagging too ?)

I don't reckon Bernal is bluffing, Thomas' form is concerning and Sivakov didn't do much.
On the other hand, when Froome decided enough was enough it was with a grin and a thumbs up for the camera from 4th wheel so he is either bluffing like a pro or is going to be found out big style in a couple of weeks.

On the plus side, Castroviejo is riding well and seems to be becoming the new Kiryienka and Kwiatkowsi is looking better than last year although, to be fair, that's a low bar to clear.

It appears Froome is either still bluffing or is way off form. My money is on the latter. No Tour for him.

He looks too relaxed for him to be worrying about le tour. If he knew he wasnt going he'd not be in the rehearsal surely. If he needed a performance to be picked he'd suffer more surely? He looks like he's riding to a plan. Its an odd one, mind you G doesnt look a lot better and he'd be going too?

Froome isn’t bluffing. Sir Dave’s taken his inhaler. All Froome needs to do is get his fitness back and move to Israel Start Up. There’s no way he’s racing the Tour. Everyone’s form is all over the place. Over cooked, under cooked, half baked, boiled to mush. Is Bernal up to the job? Well he’s been at altitude while Thomas has been in the valleys. Has Thomas got the form? Or is he a bit disillusioned? I want to see a resurgent Quintana and a GT Doumalin. Quintana may not happen, Doumalin though...

I’d say this is more the level Froome should be, now he hasn’t been able to ‘train’ in Kenya with all the ‘supplements’ that brings

Dumoulin isnt looking great, nor is Yates,

Good to see Ineos off form - could this be the end of the Sky/Ineos snorefest that has blighted recent years?

I’d say this is more the level Froome should be, now he hasn’t been able to ‘train’ in Kenya with all the ‘supplements’ that brings

You look back through cycling history and its full of pics of Armstrong, Hamilton, Pantani et al on safari and juiced up to the eyeballs.....🤔

 

Yay Eurosport live coverage ending with 3km to go - or was it just my Sky playing up?

I think given all the issues this year you can't draw that many conclusions on form for now, although there's not that long left until the Tour. I hope Froome is locked in the Tour and finds some decent form, not too bothered if he actually wins it as I'm not a massive fan but I'd like to see him get a decent shot at a 5th Tour.

I don't understand what Sagan is doing at the Dauphine though...

I don’t understand what Sagan is doing at the Dauphine though…

Training, no one is writing off his chances yet but he's been way off so far this season.

Good to see Ineos off form – could this be the end of the Sky/Ineos snorefest that has blighted recent years?

Looking like it’ll be a Jumbo snorefest to me.

Yay Eurosport live coverage ending with 3km to go

According to the Spanish commentators the Eurosport Player servers fell over Europe-wide, affected all their channels. It recovered with about 2.5km to go. (I watched it in the evening, so wasn't affected).

And yeah, the season could just turn into a Jumbo snorefest which wouldn't be great, either.

Fuglsang dominated the Dauphine last year, how did the tour go for him. The fear for Jumbo is that they have peaked too soon. Can Roglic hold his form through a 3 werk stage race that doesnt start for another 2 weeks?

Yep watching it last night and I reckon Froome will more likely be riding into form during the Tour and Roglic out. Dumoulin might be the bigger threat to Froome/Inneos/anyone else at the Tour. I can't wait 😀

Roglic is just looking astounding isn't he, especially with the team he's put together to help out there, the whole squad is just riding with such intent and such ability, it's awesome to see. Sure, we can sit here and call it a snooze fest like INEOS/Sky of previous years, but it's harsh to do so, they're just doing their job.

I'm not sure how long it takes to 'ride into form' or whether the main INEOS guys are taking it 2% easy and not going fully into the red to save fatigue for the upcoming Tour, but at the moment you just can't see past JUMBO winning this one..

Certainly, no-one else is standing out for me, with Bardet, Quintana, Yates, etc etc all looking a good chunk off the pace when we get to the pointy bits.

Sure, we can sit here and call it a snooze fest like INEOS/Sky of previous years, but it’s harsh to do so, they’re just doing their job.

Oh yeah, I fully understand why they do it - but it makes for crap spectating.

Stage 2’s Groupetto punishment was a bit harsh

Savage!

Although am reassured to see some familiar looking Kinesio taping on that guys lower back, I mean, if the professionals do it then it CAN'T be snake-oil right?

Training, no one is writing off his chances yet but he’s been way off so far this season

It can't be great training though to plod along at tempo in the bunch then get dropped on a climb and then plod along in the groupetto the rest of the stage?

And that hail looked pretty brutal!

I’d say this is more the level Froome should be, now he hasn’t been able to ‘train’ in Kenya with all the ‘supplements’ that brings

You look back through cycling history and its full of pics of Armstrong, Hamilton, Pantani et al on safari and juiced up to the eyeballs

Didnt work too Well for Fausto Coppi!!

That left hand pic of the hail up there ^^ looks like some kind of weird romantic painting from the 18th C, with a Jumbo-Visma rider pasted in. 😀

It can’t be great training though to plod along at tempo in the bunch then get dropped on a climb

I have a feeling they were doing a bit more than plodding along. Yates went pop before Froome for example.

Froome looks like he's struggling at the back of the peleton up the col de madeleine

dodgy descent road surface !

That left hand pic of the hail up there ^^ looks like some kind of weird romantic painting from the 18th C, with a Jumbo-Visma rider pasted in. 😀

Ha, yeah. There's a subreddit dedicated to this ( https://www.reddit.com/r/AccidentalRenaissance).

I'm really enjoying the Dauphiné and I'm not too worried about a Jumbo snooze-fest:

- Look at the size of the lead GC groups in yesterday's and today's stage. We're getting bunch sprints at the end of mountain stages. I think it's cool.
- Jumbo look good, but not Sky-in-their-prime-all-conquering-good.
- Roglič looks amazing but he's not invincible - see last year's Giro.
- If Ineos do improve between now and the Tour, the ding-dong battle between them and Jumbo could be quite something, or open the door for someone opportunistic to upset the apple cart.

I'm fully prepared to accept that I might just be being very optimistic because BIKE RACING IS BACK ON TV AND IT'S GREAT.

Ol' (not so old 😀 ) WVA is an impressive rider.... towed the peleton up the madeleine and a quarter of the final climb. he was winning the sprinters classic a week ago !

Loving the cycling on the telly at the moment, especially today's stage.
When I was in France a couple of years ago we stayed quite close to St Martin (villeranger) and also rode up and back down the Col de la Madelaine. The weather today looked equally as nice as when we were there.

We even got to watch a cycle race that we had no idea was happening until we saw them setting up the finish line. The race was the Tour de Savoie Mont-Blanc. It was class sitting in the sun drinking a cold Kronenberg Blanch watching the finish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Savoie_Mont-Blanc

The climb up to Val Thorens is class too.

After chatting to a British builder in a St Martin bar when we were there. I got a deluded idea into my head that I could move there, not sure the wife and kids would be up for it. 😭

Interesting factoid about the Col de la Madelaine is that despite being labeled as a 2000m col it's actually only 1,993m they just thought it sounded better being 2000m.
You would think they'd have just dumped a 7m high pile of rocks and dirt at the top but why bother when you can just change the sign, I just love the French way of doing things.

As for Ineos's lack of form, I can't see Dave Brailsford getting it so wrong. I think they're bluffing in order to get Jumbo to burn themselves out in the first week or so in the Tour then in the last week they will attack, attack, attack!

I do find it funny how Froome gets slated for being boring yet Roglic is unbelievably more boring. I like Froome, especially after reading his autobiography. He's very intelligent, shrewd, tough as old boots and absolutely ruthless in his pursuit of achieving his goals. If he was actually as poor as his current form indicates I think he would just retire rather than suffer every day with no chance of winning. Bring on the Tour!!! 👌

^^^ not ‘arf didnthurt ^^^
Go Froome-dog

Looks like Bernal has pulled out of the Dauphiné:

https://www.itv.com/itvcycling/articles/egan-bernal-abandons-the-criterium-du-dauphine

A real shame IMO - he's the kind of rider who has the chops to come back fighting after losing some time, and I was kind of hoping he was going to have a pop at Roglič this weekend.

So Egan’s abandonment in light of the earlier comment on Froome:

ruthless in his pursuit of achieving his goals

🤔?

I think that Ineos are running two strategies for the Tour.

1. Kwiatovski, Sivakov and Bernal will peak for the earlier part of the tour and plan to take the lead.

2. Thomas and Froome to peak in the latter part of the tour and will attack on a big mountain day where it will force all the other teams to chase them down towing Bernal along. Essentially Jumbo and and the other favourites will be working for Bernal because if they don't Thomas or Froome will win it.

Bernal being pulled out of the Dauphine could be to help him recover from a genuine niggle or it could just be Brailsford playing mind games. I think letting Jumbo go into the Tour super confident could make them complacent and open to attack from everyone.

Roglic does look the strongest out there which doesn't always translate to winning the Tour, if anything it makes you a marked man where no one will let you get an advantage.

I'm so excited about the Tour that I hope something like what happened last year doesn't ruin it for the fans.

Nice to see someone else getting a win today. Shame about the crash and abandonments.

Has anyone seen any images/video of the descent that did for Kruiswijk?

As bad as they say, or is Dumoulin doing a Schleck and whinging about descending?

As bad as they say, or is Dumoulin doing a Schleck and whinging about descending?

Unlikely, he's a really good descender. In the 'toilet' stage of the Giro he made time up on the descents vs the likes of Nibali.

I think Pinot said in an interview that he'd ridden the road in training and was surprised that they didn't resurface it.

Kind of agree with @didnthurt. But Ineos have to stop leading the train. Let the Yellow Jersey team do the work. I know tactics are much simpler in hindsight, but Ineos need to let Jumbo represent the Yellow and let them work harder earlier on. I still think Bernal has a chance, but he does need other riders to get in the break to make LJ work. No point in dragging 3 or 4 LJ riders to the last KM then letting Roglic or Dumoulin attack. Make them work. Them use G or Froome to attack, leave Bernal to sit in the wheels. Then Bernal attacks on the high mountains.
Massively over simplified I know. But anyway, it’s getting closer and I’m incredibly excited!! (And drunk!!!)

Roglič has abandoned this morning due to injuries from the crash he had yesterday:

https://twitter.com/JumboVismaRoad/status/1294927097417338880?s=20

That puts Pinot in the lead today, with a lot of folk very close behind:

Sad to see someone so strong leave the race because of a crash, but it will be interesting to see how the race develops today.

As for what this all means for the tour? Who knows?

Wow... that's going to make today massively interesting then. You'd expect to see Jumbo Visma shattering it for a win today then instead of going for the GC bunching....

I'm going LAnda...

It's already kicking off...

https://twitter.com/nedboulting/status/1294953431057272850?s=20

That was entertaining. If you didn't watch it seek out some highlights. It's a great shame though that we don't get full stage coverage of most races. There is so much action early on that we miss as became apparent when we started to get full coverage of TdF.

tough ol' race.