photo credits @ WTFK
A couple of days after he lost significant time in the ITT, Tadej Pogacar responded with a dominant performance on the first mountain stage of this year’s Critérium du Dauphiné.
The reigning world champion attacked on the way up Côte de Domancy, leaving his rivals unable to follow as he flew away towards Domancy, opening up a sizable gap to win the stage ahead of Jonas Vingegaard Danish and Florian Lipowitz (+1’22’’), while Remco Evenepoel came in at 1’50’’ in arrears.
A hard battle for the break
Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) initiated the first attack of the day, animating the stage after 27km of racing that also drew out Michael Shea Leonard (Ineos Grenadiers), Bruno Armirail (Décathlon-AG2R), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B), Anthony Turgis, Alex Baudin (EF Education-Easypost) and Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL).
The race explodes with 43 km to go
With 43km to go, the breakaway group’s advantage fell to 1’15’’ at the bottom of the first ascent of the Côte du Mont-Saxonnex, with counter attacks back in the peloton coming from Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pogacar and Lipowitz, with Lipowitz later going solo.
However, the German rider was later reeled in with 40km to go, with Tim Wellens setting the pace for Pogacar, while Vingegaard, Ben Tulett, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Paul Seixas (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Enric Mas (Movistar) and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) fast on their wheels.
Pogacar smashes the Côte de Domancy
At the bottom of the Côte de Domancy, Leonard and Baudin were still clinging to 1’15’’ gap, with Baudin later distancing his fellow breakaway companion.
Behind him, UAE Team Emirates-XRG set a brutal pace, with Pogacar accelerating 1km from the summit. Vingegaard tried to stay on terms, but the Slovenian surged clear, later catching and passing Baudin with 6.5km to go.
From there, Pogacar continued to increase his lead, later soloing to victory, while Vingegaard, Lipowitz, Jorgenson and Evenepoel were left to battle it out for the remaining spots on the podium.
