2013 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 8 Report and Final Race Results

 

Chris Froome wins the 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné

Chris Froome demonstrated the leadership quality that he will need to lead Team Sky to a Tour De France win by taking the overall win at the Critérium du Dauphiné today. His capable lieutenant, Richie Porte finished right behind him in second place, and Daniel Moreno of Katusha rounded out the podium with a strong third place finish. The stage winner came as a surprise to many however.

Sunday’s eighth and final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné saw the peloton ride through the worst weather of the race. Through heavy rain and cool temperatures Team Cannondale’s Alessandro De Marchi held on to take the first win of his career on top of the category 1 Montée de Risoul. De Marchi was the last survivor from a large breakaway group of over 20 riders, and the first over the finish line almost four and-a-half hours later.

The chasing peloton picked up the escapees little by little all the way up to the final climb. Five remained in front as they started the climb: De Marchi, Alberto Losada of Katusha, Travis Meyer of Orica GreenEdge, Tim Wellens of Lotto Belisol and BMC’s Manuel Quinziato. One by one the dwindling GC chasing group caught them, but they...

Stage 8 Preview 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné

Six riders did not take the start of today’s seventh stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, and a further 16 abandoned during the race. After Thomas Voeckler’s impressive demonstration of a breakaway win yesterday on stage six, today saw more than twenty riders escape up the road to try their own breakaway success. This time the peloton reeled them all in, and Sylvain Chavanel (OPQ) and Alessandro De Marchi (CAN) were the last to be caught before the final climbs to the finish.

On the category 1 penultimate climb Sammy Sanchez (EUS) and Jakob Fuglsang (AST) broke free to try their luck. By that time the chasing group had been greatly reduced to just a few GC contenders. They chased the two escapees hard, but could not catch them on the final climb. Sammy Sanchez rode away with an emotional first win of the season, after several previous disappointments.

Sammy Sanchez (Euskatel) gets his first win of 2013

A late but powerful attack from Richie Porte helped preserve his second place podium position, as Garmin’s young Rohan Dennis lost his third place, but managed to keep the white young rider’s jersey. Michael Rogers of Saxo-Tinkoff took over the third podium spot, with Katusha’s Daniel Moreno a mere ten seconds behind. Expect Moreno to try and eat away at that lead on tomorrow’s final stage to Risoul.145 riders finished the stage today.

Gianni Meersman and Thomas Damuseau still hold the points and mountain jerseys, respectively. Damuseau padded his lead by crossing the KOM lines in second place over each of the day’s first three climbs—including the early climb over Alpe d’Huez, which occurred before broadcasters were on the air.

Stage 8 Profile

Tomorrow’s final 156km stage 8 features another mountaintop finish, and the last chance for glory in the 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné.  The first 100 kms feature one category-3 climb before the riders reach the first of two cat. 1 climbs. The first is the Col de Vars (10.4k at 6.9%), which tops out about 36kms before the finish. After a 20km descent the peloton will start the final cat. 1 climb to the finish. The Montée de Risoul is about 14kms long with an average gradient of 6.7%, and is a relatively steady climb all the way up.

At this point it does not look good for anyone who hopes to steal the lead away from Sky’s Chris Froome. Another solid finish tomorrow could even net Froome the points jersey, too, as he now trails Meersman in that competition by nine points.

My pick for stage 8: Daniel Moreno (Katusha)

2013 TOUR DE SUISSE RACE PREVIEW

 

June 8 to 16, 2013

The 2013 Tour de Suisse race route

The 77^th edition of the Tour de Suisse begins this Saturday, June 8, and runs until June 16^th. It is for many riders the last stage race for pre Tour De France tune-ups. While many TDF favorites have been using the Critérium du Dauphiné to test their racing legs against the competition before the Tour, several others will do their fine-tuning in Switzerland (The Tour De France starts on Saturday June 29).

Twenty-one teams of eight riders each will take the start for the Prologue time trial in Quinto, instead of the town of Lugano, where it has started for the last three years. The entire race will cover 1309 kilometers over nine stages, across the beautiful Swiss countryside. It will feature one prologue time trial, one half-flat, half-climbing time trial, one mountaintop finish, two stages with big climbs close to the finish and a few stages for the sprinters and breakaway specialists. 

Of the 2012 podium, only the winner, Rui Costa is able to return

Last year’s winner, Rui Costa of team Movistar, will be back to try and defend his title against a strong field of contenders. None of the others from last year’s top five finishers are returning, but several strong GC contenders will certainly vie for this year’s title.

Several of the sport’s top sprinters will also be trying to prevent Team Cannondale’s Slovakian wunderkind, Peter Sagan from dominating the sprints like he did lat year. In 2012 Sagan won the opening time trial and then went on to win three more stages and the points jersey.

Here is a list of who I believe are this year’s favorites for the General Classification:

Stage 5 Preview and Picks 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné

 

Alberto Contador (center) got squeezed out today by good rides from Chris Froome and Tony Martin

The General Classification got a thorough restructuring today in the 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné. Reigning world time trial champion Tony Martin gathered his strength after a couple days of stomach ailments, and duly treated the fans to an all too familiar dominating win over the rest of the field. The flat 32.5-Kilometer course took the wind out of many contenders’ sails, altering the leader board considerably. Garmin’s young Tasmanian talent, Rohan Dennis performed very well to finish second on the stage and take the leader’s jersey off of Europcar’s David Veilleux. Chris Froome is well poised in second place overall, just five seconds off of Dennis’ lead.

The four current jersey holders, clockwise from top left:

Dennis, Damusea, Dennis and Meersman

Just about all of Froome’s main competitors for the General Classification conceded two or more minutes to the Kenyan native today. Sammy Sanchez trails him by 2:30 now, and Rolland, Valverde, Van Den Broeck, Contador and Rodriguez are further behind, but still within 3:00 of Froome. Three minutes is not small change. We will see if anyone can take any of that time back in the mountains.

Speaking of mountains, they arrive tomorrow for stage 5 to Valmorel. A rolling first half of Thursday’s 139-km route gives way to about 50 kilometers of mostly flat terrain, before the first real mountaintop finish of the race. The final climb to Valmorel begins after about 126 kilometers of racing. The climb is 12.7 kms long, averages about a 7 % gradient overall, and remains relatively constant throughout. That means a steady, measured effort with ambitious attacks probably coming just in the last two or three kms. It’s a chance for yesterday’s sub-par performers to regain some lost time, but that will not be an easy task against a very fit Chis Froome.

Profile of Stage 5 to Valmorel

Stage 5, 139 kms, Grésy-sur-Aix to Valmorel [MTF]:

Mountain Passes & Hills:

·       Km 25.5 - Côte de Trévignin - 4.4 km climb at 6.6 % - Category 3

·       Km 67.0 - Col du Frêne - 1.9 km climb at 6 % - Category 4

·       Km 111.0 - Côte de la Croix - 2.3 km climb at 4.1 % - Category 4

·       Km 139.0 - Montée de Valmorel - 12.7 km climb at 7 % - Category HC

I don’t think the GC contenders will want to let a break stay away to the finish; I believe several riders will hope to attack Froome on the top of the mountain and try to isolate him.

Stage 5 final climb profile

STAGE 5 PICKS:

Popular picks: Chris Froome (Sky), Joaquin Rodriguez (KAT), Alejandro Valverde (MOV): so far it’s Froome who has seemed strongest.

Dark-horse pick: Leopold König (TNE): he won the climbing stage to Mount Diablo in the Tour of California a couple weeks ago, and is riding in the top-10 after a good time trial.

My pick: I would not be surprised to see Richie Porte (Sky-currently 5^th on GC) or Mick Rogers (TST-currently 11th) continue their good form and take this stage. Rogers is coming off a second place overall finish at the Tour of California, and Porte is currently 5^th in the world rankings this year, and has been riding strong all season, with stage wins in the Tour of the Basque Country, Criterium International, and Paris Nice (where he also won the overall).

Stage 4 - 32.5 km ITT Report and Results; 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné

 

Today’s stage 4 individual time trial is a flat 32.5-kilometer long course.

Stage 4 Time Trial profile

Team Net App-Endura’s Jan Barta set an early best time, but was then bested by Jonathan Castroviejo of Movistar. World TT Champion Tony Marrtin (OPQ) finished with a time of 36:54. He rode the flat 32.5 k course at an average speed of 52.84 kph to take the lead away from Castroviejo--a time that set the standard until the end.

Katusha team leader Joaquin Rodriguez finishes 3:47 behind Martin. Not a good sign for the Tour De France hopeful.

Tony Martin’s teammate Michael Kwiatkowski posts the currently third-best time, 1:13 slower than Martin.

Team Sky leader, Chris Froome goes through the first checkpoint (at km 11.5) 26 seconds slower than Martin, third-best so far.

Alberto Contador goes through the first checkpoint 40 seconds slower than...