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Critérium du Dauphiné proves costly to Tour de France contenders

Bernal, Roglič, Kruijswijk and Buchmann all injured in Tour warm-up race

Photo by: Sirotti
August 16, 2020
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The 72nd Critérium du Dauphiné was supposed to be Round 2 of Egan Bernal vs. Primož Roglič and Ineos vs. Jumbo-Visma, after the Dutch Bees and the Slovenian champion of the Vuelta a España prevailed in early August’s Tour de Ain. But the French WorldTour stage race instead proved to be costly to several Tour contenders’ yellow jersey aspirations, with Egan Bernal, Primož Roglič, Steven Kruijswijk and Emanuel Buchmann all abandoning because of injuries. The mitigating factor to this havoc was that it led to an edge-of-your-seat conclusion on Sunday.

The real Tour contender carnage came on Saturday’s penultimate stage. Bernal, who was in seventh place while looking quite ordinary, didn’t start because of back problems. Kruijswijk and Buchmann crashed on the descent of Col de Plan Bois and both had to climb off their bikes, Kruijswijk with a separated shoulder. Tom Dumoulin was critical of the race organizers including such a harrowing downhill in the parcours.

Later that stage a crash took down race leader Roglič, who was dazed enough to climb in his team car for a moment. Roglič finished the stage, retaining his 14-second lead over Thibaut Pinot, but didn’t start Sunday’s final stage.

Sunday’s Conclusion

Roglič’s abandonment put Pinot in the race lead, but the Frenchman was overwhelmed by attacks over the eight classified climbs, and a high-powered breakaway featuring a few riders in the top-10 and top-20 was his undoing. Nairo Quintana, seventh overnight, packed it in.

On the final climb to the finish Angel Lopez (sixth overnight), Pavel Sivakov, Tadej Pogačar (ninth overnight), Sepp Kuss and Dani Martinez (fifth overnight) were fighting it out both for the day’s flowers and the GC victory. First Julian Alaphilippe and then Warren Barguil seemed to be working for Pinot. Pinot then lit out on his own to save the yellow jersey he wasn’t even wearing. It was going to be tight.

Kuss sprang ahead to take the stage win, Dani Martinez (Colombia/EF Pro Cycling) earned the biggest triumph of his career and Pinot had to be content with runner-up.

It’s unclear how bad Bernal, Roglič, Buchmann’s injuries are. Roglič’s key teammate Kruijswijk is unlikely to race La Grande Boucle. Martinez’s hopes will be lifted. Pinot will wonder how he’s going to win his home tour without a strong team. The Tour de France begins in Nice in 13 days.