photo credits @ Le Tour
Tadej Pogačar won the opening stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné today, after out-sprinting Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Decuninck) out of an all-star breakaway in Montluçon.
The five rider group, which also contained Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious), was animated by Vingegaard during the final 6km, with a flurry of attacks coming after the final characterized climb, with Evenepoel featuring prominently after he bridged his way across.
However, the Belgian rider lacked the punch necessary to come around Van der Poel, who was the first opened up his sprint. Meanwhile, a late burst from Pogačar, saw the Slovenian rider barely nix a fast charging Vingegaard on the line.
Race Highlights
Domérat and Montluçon were only separated by a handful of kilometers during today’s 195.8km stage, with Paul Ourselin (Cofidis) and Pierre Thierry (Arkea-B&B Hotel) attacking as soon as the flag dropped, with the duo quickly opening up an advantage of 3’55’’.
Ourselin rules the early climbs, Pogacar shows himself
As the escapees made their way back to Montluçon, they faced the first categorized climbs of the day, with Ourselin the first to summit the Côte de Sainte-Thérence, Côte d’Argenty, Côte de Buffon and Côte de Domérat to all but secure the polka-dot jersey.
In the meantime, EF Education-EasyPost up the ante on the second ascent of the Côte de Buffon, with Pogačar already lifting the pace with almost 40km to go, while Vingegaard was keen to mark his move.
Vingegaard makes the difference
Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) seized the opportunity to bridge the 10-second gap to Thierry, with the trio pushing their lead out to 45’’ into the final lap, while Thierry was the first over the Côte de Domérat, before Wright went solo during the last 25km.
However, the British rider was later caught on the final ascent of the Côte de Buffon, with a string of attacks coming from Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers) and Lukas Nerurkar (EF Education-EasyPost), until Vingegaard put the hammer down with 5.6km to go.
Pogacar outsprints Van der Poel
Van der Poel led out the sprint to the line, while Pogačar timed his attack to perfection, getting the better of the Dutch rider, as Vingegaard also managed to overhaul the Dutchman just before the finish to seize the second spot on the podium.
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