Critérium du Dauphiné 2014 – Stage 6 Preview

By David Hunter

Stage 5 Recap

After some crazy early racing, we eventually got our break. The presence of Atapuma and De Clercq meant that Team Sky were busy all day. On the descent off the penultimate climb, Alberto Contador, launched a blistering attack. He took 1 minute in a very short space of time, before the Sky train pulled him back, just after the final climb. On the final climb, Simon Spilak, attacked the break and no one could follow. After a disastrous start to the race, he took a very good win. Kelderman and Yates managed to steal a few seconds in the run-in.

Stage 6 Grenoble – Poisy 178.5km

A different type of day.

With only 3 cat 4 climbs, some of the sprinters will be interested in this stage. The climbs aren’t too hard:

Côte de la Bétaz – 1.5km at 4.4%

Côte de Marcellaz-Albanais – 4.6km at 4.1%

Côte de Ronzy – 1.7km at 6.3%

The final 2 climbs are close to the end of the race, especially the final climb, which crests with 7.5km remaining. The climb is steep enough to cause some problems, especially if we get attacks. After the climb we have a challenging end to the stage.

The end of the race is very technical. The last 5km run through some very tight roads. These roads have some fairly steep sections, before a flat run through a residential area. This is full of sleeping policeman and a few roundabouts. This means it will be a hard job to make a bunch sprint happen. We are bound to get attacks on the cat 4 climb, and on these short, sharp sections, after it. The finish is very similar to a few semi-classic races.

We will, of course, get our usual breakaway. After some tough days, I think it will be a smaller break. Most teams will be happy to bring the race back together, in time for the final 2 climbs. That will need some cooperation between the teams, and I think we’ll get it.

FDJ messed up their sprint train on stage 3, and they did say that there was only one opportunity for a sprint finish. After Démare missed out there, he’ll fancy another crack of the whip.

Simon Gerrans will be the first name that springs to most minds. The Aussie is not looking in good condition and I seriously doubt he’ll be an option. This isn’t a problem for Orica, as they have Impey and Keukeleire. Both of these riders are in good form just now.

There are a number of riders that could contest a smaller bunch sprint: Simon, Reza, Gallopin, Van Avermaet, Tsatevich, Kwiatkowski, Arndt, Navardauskas, Cimolai, Martinez and Lars Boom.

There is a big chance that an attack late on will stay away. This suits Voeckler and Chavanel, but too much is often expected of these riders and everyone wants to jump on their wheel. This makes it very difficult for them to succeed with a late attack.

What about Arnaud Démare? Don’t think this boy is just a “sprinter”. He’s going to be a star of the classics and this finish is perfectly suited to him. He’s already won the 4 days of Dunkirk and the Tour de Picardie in 2014, races with a lot of hills! He was 3rd in Paris-Tours at the end of 2013, matching the attacks of the riders on the final climb, along with John Degenkolb. FDJ can try to manage the difficult finale or let Démare go with a late attack.

It certainly promises to be a very exciting end to the stage.

Predicition time…

I’m going with Démare.

David Hunter

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