2025 Criterium du Dauphine Stage 4.

Countdown to the Tour de France!

Guys, the Giro was amazing. We had three weeks of quality racing and genuinely didn’t know who was going to win the overall until the penultimate day. It was a blast, but lets not kid ourselves, the Giro is great, but it’s only the cool younger brother to the main event in the cycling calendar; the Tour de France. The Tour is like a big Hollywood movie, it has the biggest stars, the most famous locations, the biggest audience. So, for the next two weeks we are going to be paying very close attention to the two stage races that serve as dress rehearsals for the Tour, the Criterium du Dauphine, and the Tour de Suisse.

This year’s Dauphine is stacked with GC talent, we have all the TDF favourites to devour over: Pogcar, Vingegaard, & Evenepoel. Van Der Poel back in action for the first time since Paris-Roubaix, Lidl’s great sprinting hope Jonathan Milan will be hoping for some stage wins as he prepares for his first TdF….

Stage 1

The race started with a bumpy 195km stage from Domerat to Montlucon. It was up and down all day with a whole bunch of cat 4 climbs towards the end. At 5km to go on the final little climb of the day with the peloton all together, there was an attack from Jonas Vingegaard! Who burst away from the front of the peloton with only Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu Van Der Poel able to react. As the three superstars of the sport raced away from the bunch there was already a lot of head turning and looking about to see who was going to do the work. Santiago Buitrago, the Columbian climber from Bahrain-Victorious was able to escape and join them, and he was joined a few seconds later by Remco Evenepoel. Now we had the three favourites for the race all together, with Van Der Poel up there as well, it really was an all-star breakaway.

Behind in the shocked peleton, Lidl Trek got on the front to try and pull them back to give their sprinter Jonathan Milan a chance at the stage win. After a while though the chasing peleton were more occupied with preventing anyone else escaping than bringing back Vingegaard and co who had now started working together quite well. At 2km to go the break had 5 seconds on the peleton, at the flamme rouge the gap was still 5 seconds, but the chasing peleton was not organised enough to catch the break. Ineos were leading the chase, just to make sure their GC riders didnt lose any time, and Lidl wanted Milan to sprint but none of the other teams seemed to want to work.

At 600m to go Van Der Poel was trying to pull away from the other four, but the groups stayed together for another 400m, then Van Der Poel finally led out the sprint, as the peleton were almost upon them! Remco was right behind Van Der Poel, and tried to come past him on the left, but Pogacar came from behind Remco and launched his sprint timing it perfectly, Pogacar surged ahead of everyone and took the stage win! So the stage, and the first yellow jersey of the Dauphine went to Pogacar, but the mad breakaway was all down to Jonas Vingegaard who has announced to the cycling world that he is back and looking very strong.

Vingegaard of course had started this season with more bad luck. In 2024 it was a crash at the Basque Country in April that scuppered his TdF preparation. This year Jonas had another early season crash at Paris-Nice in March. It is great to see him back in fine form, as a Tour de France without Vingegaard would be one without any real competition for Pogacar.

Stage 2

Stage 2 was another bumpy one, 205km from Premilhat to Issoire with a lot of smaller categorised climbs along the way. This time the peleton made sure that there was a bunch finish. Earlier Romain Bardet had managed to escape with 18km to go, but he was reeled in 9km later.

As the peleton crossed the flamme rouge Lidl Trek had the biggest leadout train for Milan, Bahrain had a smaller leadout for their sprinter Fred Wright, but it was Trek at the front all the way until 250m to go when Milan was launched. Milan got to the front of the bunch and no one managed to get past the Italian rider, who crossed the line with his hands in the air, to claim his first ever victory on French soil (which is hard to believe!) Milan receives a 10 second bonus and with that he takes the lead in the GC, and will wear the yellow jersey in stage 3.

Lidl have built their Tour de France squad around Milan this year, much to the disappointment of Mads Pedersen, who got to ride the Giro instead, winning 4 stages and the sprinters jersey in the process. Milan, in his first Tour de France will be up against top sprinters Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier, and Biniam Girmay. It will be interesting to see how he measures up against them.

Stage 3

Stage 3 was 207km from Brioude to Charantonnay, and ended up being one for the breakaway. A 13 man breakaway formed early in the stage, and by 163km to go the gap grew to over a minute. In the breakaway were riders Louis Barré, Florian Lipowitz, Max Schachmann, Mathieu Van der Poel, Eddie Dunbar, Axel Laurance, Michael Leonard, Julien Bernard, Harold Tejada, Ivan Romeo, Andreas Leknessund, Brieuc Rolland, Krists Neilands, and Anthony Turgis.

As the day wore on, yesterday’s winner and yellow jersey holder Jonathan Milan was slowly distanced from the main peleton, as the climbs were a bit too much for him. Towards the end of the stage Milan was brought back into the bunch,but kept on going backwards whenever the road went uphill.

At 10km to go the breakaway were over a minute ahead of the peleton. At 6km to go Ivan Romeo, the 21 year old Spaniard from Movistar attacked out of the breakaway and got a small gap. The other breakaway riders didn’t react, and at 4km to go Romeo had 15 seconds on them. Romeo managed to maintain his lead and won the stage solo, 14 seconds ahead of the chasers. Romeo, who started the day 10 seconds down on GC took the yellow jersey, and now has a 17 second lead on second place Louis Barre. Going into the stage 4 time trial, the main GC rivals are almost neck and neck. Tadej Pogacar has 6 seconds over Vingegaard (due to time bonuses on stage 1), Evenepoel is 5 seconds behind Vingegaard.

Stage 4

Stage 4 should see the first big time gaps in this years Dauphine. The ITT is 17km from Charmes-sur-Rhone to Saint-Peray. Looking at the profile below, there is 6km of flat, followed by 2km of climbing with an average of 8.5% (pretty steep) and then a descent to the finish.

The first of the GC favourites to set off is Remco Evenepoel, who wears the rainbow jersey of the reigning World Time Trial champion. Vingegaard sets off shortly after, and then Pogacar rolls down the start ramp. It is strange to see Pogacar clad in the standing UAE team kit, we are used to seeing him either in his rainbow jersey, or the leaders jersey. As the three favourites set off, Visma’s Matteo Jorgenson crosses the line with the fastest time of the day so far, 21:28.69, or 48.6kph.

Van Der Poel starts next, wearing the green jersey of the points leader. As Van Der Poel set off we see Remco now on the climb already overtaking his minute man Bastien Tronchon. The first and only timing point of the stage is coming up on the descent of the climb, at about 7km to go. Vingegaard catches him minute man on the climb too, just as Pogacar hits the bottom of the climb.

The last rider to set off is yellow jersey rider, and breakaway winner of yesterday’s stage Ivan Romeo. He will be trying very hard to hang on to the jersey, and might manage it too as he is a pretty solid time trialist.

Evenepoel flies through the time check 30 seconds faster than the leader Jorgenson! Remco looks solid in his signature aero position. Behind him comes Vingegaard, 11 seconds slower through the time check. We wait to see Pogacar’s time next, as Evenepoel has 4km to go now and is overtaking riders like they are stationary!

Pogacar approches the time check now, taking breaks from pedaling as he freewheel's down the descent. The time is going up as Pogacar looks like if is really off the pace of Evenepoel and Vingegaard. Pogacar goes through the time check 30 seconds slower than Evenepoel! It looks like Remco is riding into the yellow jersey today.

Remco goes through the final km which starts with a few technical corners, then there is a long straight, and as Remco approached the finish line, Matteo Jorgonsen gets up out of the hot seat, he is beaten by 37 seconds as Remco finishes the stage at 20:50.90 averaging 50.1 kph. Vingegaard is approching the finish line now, he has ridden a very solid TT and is putting some time into Pogacar. Vingegaard finishes in second place, 20 seconds behind Remco.

Pogacar is still on the road and as he matches Remco’s time of 20 mins 50 seconds he still has 850m to go. Pogi eventually finishes in 4th place, 48 seconds down on Remco, and 18 seconds behind Vingegaard. Now there is just Ivan Romeo left to watch, and we wait to see if he can retain yellow.

Romeo started the day 1:17 ahead of Remco, so it is going to be pretty close. We all know how many extra watts the leaders jersey can give a rider in a TT, as they ride to retain their position. Romeo hits the flamme rouge as the seconds tick away, and unfortunately for him there is just too far to go before his time runs out, and the 21 year old Spaniard finishes 1:25 behind Remco, so just 7 seconds over the limit.

So it is a stage win for Remco, and the Belgian has ridden himself into the race lead!

Here are the results of the stage:

1. Remco Evenepoel

2. Jonas Vingegaard (20 secs)

3. Matteo Jorgenson (37 secs)

4. Tadej Pogacar (48 secs)

5. Florian Lipowitz (56 secs)

6. Mathieu Van Der Poel (1:01)

7. Remi Cavagna (1:06)

8. Eddie Dunbar (1:09)

9. Tobias Foss (1:09)

10. Paul Seixas (1:11)

The GC standings are still affected by some riders from yesterday’s breakaway, here is the top ten:

1. Remco Evenepoel

2. Florian Lipowitz (4 secs)

3. Ivan Romeo (9 secs)

4. Mathieu Van Der Poel (14 secs)

5. Jonas Vingegaard (16 secs)

6. Eddie Dunbar (30 secs)

7. Harold Tejada (30 secs)

8. Tadej Pogacar (387 secs)

9. Matteo Jorgenson (39 secs)

10. Louise Barre (1:03)

So it is all very close in the GC, 9 riders all within 39 seconds of each other. Remco holds a small lead over Vingegaard, who has started this race looking very strong. Pogacar is a bit further back, let’s keep in mind that we have not got to the mountains yet. The first summit finish comes in stage 6, it is not until stage 7 when the real climbing starts. Let’s also keep in mind that although winning the Dauphine is good for one’s palmares, the real goal for the likes of Pogi, Jonas and Remco is winning the Tour. Now is not the time to be in peak condition.

Thanks for reading, we will check back on the Dauphine at the weekend, then next week we will turn our attention to the Tour de Suisse.