Critérium du Dauphiné 2014 – Stage 7 Preview

By David Hunter

Stage 6 Recap

I got it wrong! A break did get away and stayed away. It ended in a fight between Westra and Bakelants, with the OPQS rider winning the battle.

Chris Froome crashed with 7km to go, but Contador waited for him, so all is good in the world!

Stage 7 Ville La Grand – Finhaut Emosson 160km

A battle in the mountains.

A very demanding day with 2 HC climbs at the end. This is the stage that should settle the GC

The first HC climb is 12.6km at 8.2%. It has a nice steady gradient throughout and is very hard. The riders then have a 10km descent, before the final climb of the day.

The final climb is 10.2km at 8%, but with 2 kilometres at 10%. This is very difficult and only the best climbers will survive.

This stage should be all about Froome v Contador, but can Kelderman spoil their party?

I would imagine that a lot of teams will fancy the stage win, but will they be willing to work hard? With 2 difficult climbs it would make sense for Contador to get a rider in the break, so that they can help him later in the stage.

I expect Contador to be bold and attack on the penultimate climb. He wants to isolate Froome for the descent, and take some time on the downhill. If Froome is lacking teammates, it will be hard to follow the Spaniard.

If Contador waits until the final climb, it will be hard to beat Froome, but not impossible. The Englishman has some road rash, but it shouldn’t be a big problem.

The other GC riders will be battling for 3rd place. Can Kelderman’s Giro form continue all the way to the end of this race? I think he’ll struggle in this stage.

Predicition time…

¡Contador!

David Hunter

Follow us in facebook https://www.facebook.com/CiclismoInternacionalLatinoamerica?fref=ts … or Twitter @CiclismoInter