Brief Recap
Chris Froome’s dominant performance at the Dauphiné cements him as the favorite heading into this year’s Tour de France. After salvaging a very impressive Giro performance from the shambles of Bradley Wiggins’s withdrawal, Sky took the Dolphin by storm, and they will certainly be the force to be reckoned with once again at this year’s Tour de France. The race kicked off with three stages of relative calm in the General Classification, leaving all of the big favorites equal heading into a stage 4 Individual Time Trial. Froome took third on the day, 52 seconds back of TTing superstar Tony Martin, and in doing so he picked up a big chunk of time over major rivals Alejandro Valverde (3:29 back of the leader Martin), Alberto Contador (3:37 behind the leader), and Joaquim Rodriguez (3:48 back). Froome’s top lieutenant Richie Porte also had a strong fourth day (1:20 behind Martin), and while that fourth stage put Garmin’s Rohan Dennis in yellow for the day, the decisive day gave Sky’s leader and his second a commanding lead over the rest of the main contenders, and it was only a matter of time before Froome took and held the yellow. He charged past Contador on Stage 5’s uphill finish to take the stage win and the overall lead, and didn’t look back from there, holding onto the race lead without much of a challenge into the final stage in the mountain town of Risoul, where took second in the stage and closed the deal on GC.
The final General Classification top 10 looked like this:
1. Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling | 29:28:46
2. Richie Porte (Aus) Sky Procycling | +0:00:58
3. Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha | +0:02:12
4. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team | +0:02:18
5. Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits | +0:02:20
6. Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Saxo-Tinkoff | +0:03:08
7. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team | +0:03:12
8. Rohan Dennis (Aus) Garmin-Sharp | +0:03:24
9. Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi | +0:04:25
10. Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Team Saxo-Tinkoff | +0:04:27
Outside the top 10, Joaquim Rodriguez finished the race in 16th, 9:04 down on Froome.
Takeaways
The big four names heading into the Critérium du Dauphiné were Froome, Contador, Valverde, and Rodriguez. Froome distanced himself from all three rather quickly. He proved that he was the far better time trialist, but also that his climbing skills are tuned and ready for the three week struggle to come. Contador looked off-form all week. He didn’t really show up for the time trial, and his best efforts to outclimb Froome were unsuccessful. He insists that he is right where he wants to be in the run-up to the TdF, and it’s very important to remember that for some of the guys out there in the Dauphiné, actually winning the race is an afterthought to the main objective, getting in a little practice time. Perhaps this is all that guys like Joaquim Rodriguez wanted out of the Dauphiné; it should be noted that of the prior six Dauphiné winners, only Bradley Wiggins went on to win that year’s Tour de France.
Still, it’s hard to argue with Froome’s dominance at the head of the race, and with minutes worth of time separating him and his biggest challengers, he goes into the Tour de France with a lot of confidence. This isn’t really all that surprising, given his strong performances in Romandie (1st) and Tirreno-Adriatico (2nd to Giro winner Vincenzo Nibali) so far this year. He’s the man to beat, no doubt, but what was maybe a bit surprising was the stellar performance of his second in command, this year’s Paris-Nice winner Richie Porte. It doesn’t seem like this sets up any sort of in-team rivalry (Porte and Froome are close friends and training partners), which means Sky must be thrilled to have two guys who are so on-form heading into the Tour. Impressive stuff. Contador, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be panicking, but he has yet to notch an overall win this year and, though he finished in the top 10 in each, always looked just a step below the competition in Tirreno-Adriatico, Pais Vasco, and this week’s Critérium du Dauphiné.
Other impressors: Though Purito’s performance was disappointing, his teammate on Katusha, La Fleche Wallone winner and two-time Vuelta top-10 man Daniel Moreno, rounded out the podium with a week of strong climbing (not that we expected anything different). He looks like he hasn’t lost the form that he had in the Ardennes Classics this spring. Brief race leader Rohan Dennis finished in 8th place (the second Kiwi in the top 10 with Michael Rogers) and first in the Young Rider classification: Garmin-Sharp must be thrilled with his continuing success he only turned 23 the week before the race started. Elia Viviani finally took his first win of the after a string of close finishes in the Giro. Gianni Meersman took the Sprinter’s jersey without winning a stage, with top three finishes in the first three stages. Andrew Talansky, one of the favorites heading into the race after a 2nd place in Paris-Nice this year, caught sick at the beginning of the race and dropped out of overall contention immediately. However, he stayed in the race and recovered over the course of the week, crossing the line immediately behind Froome to take a solid third on the final stage; surely he would have preferred to go through the whole race in full health to get a sense of his form for the upcoming Tour, but he’ll take encouragement from this last day.
-Dane Cash
Photo by Agamitsudo.
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