I've got to admit, I do love it when the pros are brought back down to the level of the rest of us and made to see that even the most amateurish mistakes can befall any cyclist (regardless of if you can push 7w/kg or not).
Cycling is not a serious sport, part 394.
The crowd pointing the way 🙃🙈 #Dauphiné@OutOfCyclingpic.twitter.com/DlC42NIG2y
— Katy M, Dauphiné edition 🐬 (@writebikerepeat) June 7, 2024
Today's edition: route-following gone wrong. A familiar one for any of you who've been on a group ride, or do sportives where your progress relies on following roadside signs — a missed turn, off course, that moment of realisation, the inevitable... "Anyone got the route?"
In such situations everyone rushes to their roles. You'll get at least one grumpy rider cursing the person meant to be in charge of directions, you'll get the chirpy rider who believes they "know exactly where we are" and can wing a diversion on the fly (despite having not had the navigational nous to notice things going wrong in the first place), you'll get someone sheepishly blaming their headunit for their own mistake, and of course you'll get complaints all the way back to the point at which you're back on track, extra punishing metres which the cycling gods always seem to make uphill just so you suffer more.
In fairness to the pros at the Dauphiné, when you're racing a WorldTour pre-Tour de France warm-up event, you don't expect it to be like a small-time Sunday sportive. Far more blame has to go for the lack of marshalling or whoever in the lead car missed their turn. Top marks for the roadside supporters doing their best to point out the mista... ah, they're gone...
Oh boy, more drama in Dauphine. The breakaway took the wrong road because they followed the organization car not the arrows. There was no marshall to send them the right way so I can't blame them.#Dauphinepic.twitter.com/RUyBENhRZn
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) June 7, 2024
Not so for the riders and teams, but quite amusing for us enjoying from the sofa.
A global talent scouting initiative aimed at discovering the next generation of professional road cyclists, the Red Bull Junior Brothers Programme 2024, has completed its search for two promising prospects to keep an eye on. After "an intense week of testing at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre (APC)" in Thalgau, Austria, Georgs Tjumins and Karl Herzog have earned a contract with Bora-Hansgrohe's U19 team, Team GRENKE - Auto Eder, Karl the brother of current Bora-Hansgrohe pro rider Emil Herzog.
Who knows, perhaps it won't be long before its Primož Roglič towing them to victory?
If the Tour gives us one thing (other than Cav up fit and firing for win number 35, of course), I'll go for Primož Roglič getting a crash-free run at the yellow jersey. A certain other Slovenian at UAE Team Emirates will make it tough to win outright, but it would be great to see a fully fit Roglič having another shot.
🏆 Victoire de @rogla en haut du Collet d’Allevard
🏆 @rogla wins at the top of Collet d’Allevard #Dauphinépic.twitter.com/lCG3gV8cQv
— Critérium du Dauphiné (@dauphine) June 7, 2024
Aleksandr Vlasov deserves plenty of plaudits for his work to set the Dauphiné stage six victory up, towing his teammate and Giulio Ciccone to the closing metres before the Bora-Hansgrohe leader set off on one of his familiar stage-crushing uphill sprints. Behind, Remco Evenepoel struggled a day on from yesterday's crash, Roglič taking enough time to sit atop the GC, 19 seconds clear of the Belgian. Gutsy rides from Matteo Jorgenson and Derek Gee keep them in the hunt for a podium place, we'll see how their GC credentials fare during the mountainous weekend to come.
If the cameraman pulls the classic 'get a shot of the speedometer on a fast descent', the last thing I want to see when the camera returns to the race is two riders flying towards the edge of a bend. Thankfully, Mason Hollyman and Thibault Guernalec managed to slow themselves down sufficiently to avoid disaster, both up on their feet and back on the bike quickly.
Was that a front flip?!?
Mason Hollyman and Thibault Guernalec crash whilst descending in the Criterium du Dauphine. Both riders are up and back on the bike.#cycling#roadcycling#crashpic.twitter.com/xgDA0JKFhU
— Eurosport (@eurosport) June 7, 2024
There's no doubt about who won today, the world champion doubling up at the Tour of Britain, taking a second sprint victory in as many days, this time gracing Wrexham with her power. A cracking ride by Anna Henderson to stick with the rampaging Belgian over Horseshoe Pass, but it's a tough ask going head to head with Kopecky at the finish.
BACK TO BACK WINS FOR THE WORLD CHAMPION 🏆
Lotte Kopecky outsprints Anna Henderson to win Stage 2 of the Women's Tour of Britain 🇬🇧#cycling#womenscycling#roadcyclingpic.twitter.com/9z8c7nkqYU
— Eurosport (@eurosport) June 7, 2024
SD Worx teammate Lorena Wiebes was on hand to win the sprint for third and suddenly the team is halfway to winning every stage of the race. Can anyone stop them as the race heads to Warrington and Manchester this weekend?
Kopecky's GC lead will be 17 seconds heading into tomorrow, Letizia Paternoster, Pfeiffer Georgi and Lizzie Deignan a few of those a bit further back.
Again, credit to British Cycling for two entertaining stages and the sort of scenery that makes UK races so great to watch.
💚 Horseshoe Pass, that was special!#TourOfBritain | @UCI_WWTpic.twitter.com/bfkN8obBB3
— Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain (@TourofBritain) June 7, 2024
Transport for London and Santander Cycles are offering unlimited free 30-minute rides on Sundays in June as part of the launch of TfL Cycle Sundays, a new programme of leisurely routes deisgned to encourage more Londoners to enjoy the city by bike.
Find out more on the TfL website.
More than a few riders sporting bandages at the start today...
Bruised 🤕 but not broken 💪🏼
Los siete Movistar Team toman la salida en la primera de las tres grandes jornadas alpinas ⛰️ del 🇫🇷 #Dauphiné, que parte ya desde Hauterives.
🏁 ~17.10 (Le Collet d’Allevard) // 📺 15.20 (@Eurosport_ES@ciclismortve@eitbkirolak)
🎥 Barrage Media pic.twitter.com/jkRnAAlEhk
— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) June 7, 2024
Juan Ayuso and seven others, including 20-year-old British rider Lukas Nerurkar (who finished third on stage three and seventh on stage two), are out of the Dauphiné and won't start today's stage. However, far from crash injuries, the Brit has tested positive for Covid (how very 2021 of him) and teammate Harry Sweeney has an illness too. It's all going on over in France.
Ayuso, who was eighth on GC and one of six UAE Team Emirates riders to crash yesterday, is the biggest-name dropout ahead of today's HC summit finish at Le Collet d'Allevard. There'll be plenty of bruised bodies out there today.
Good news from Wrexham, Lifeplus-Wahoo will start the second stage of the Tour of Britain.
"All of our thanks and appreciation goes out to the many teams that offered and gave their spare team bikes and their mechanics' time to get our girls on the road. We wouldn't be starting without them!"
There could be no more popular stage winners today...
Speaking to ITV's Daniel Friebe, Chris Froome said he was "one of the lucky few" who avoided yesterday's crash.
"I just went off into the bushes when I saw what was happening on the road," he explained. "Just carnage. The roads were super slippery coming down that descent and all it took was one or two guys to touch their brakes... one crash turned into 60, 70, 80 guys all on the floor at high speeds. Pretty gnarly. One of the more nasty crashes I've seen."
Almost one month to the day since this live blog...
The Evening Standard now reports Pegg faces his second driving ban in three years after being caught speeding at 36mph in a 20mph zone in Hackney in October. The Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead and Mission Impossible actor served a six-month ban in 2021 after amassing 13 penalty points for four speeding offences, but he has now pleaded guilty again to an offence in the autumn, meaning he faces another potential ban.
At the time of his last ban, Pegg's lawyer told Wimbledon Magistrates' Court that he "deeply regrets" the offences and a ban would cause him "difficulties". However, court documents show Pegg was caught by a speed camera in Hackney Wick driving at 36mph in a 20 zone and he has pleaded guilty, the sentencing hearing expected to be held on June 24.
For 99 of your hard-earned pound sterling you too can be the owner of this, the Castelli Bolero Short Sleeve base layer and add "aero sleeves for aerodynamic gains" to your cycling wardrobe...
Cycling is losing its grip on reality. pic.twitter.com/YcLDI0QPHf
— Guy Andrews (@thecoureur) June 7, 2024
In fairness, it's quite obviously a product for people who ride professionally and don't have to pay for their kit or those with too much money to care but still, you can't be putting pictures of that on your website and not expect the internet to do what it does best — take the piss.
Weighing just 54g (because it's missing more than half the base layer), Castelli says these are "sleeves with aero trip ribbing for maximal aerodynamic gain"... "If you have a keen eye, you'll have noticed the lines running down the arms of our pro riders when they race TTs. These aero ribs are our Bolero sleeves — here in a short-sleeve version. The ribs create aerodynamic trip strips, making our Aero Jerseys and San Remo Speedsuits even faster."
100 Climbs author Simon Warren joked he's waiting for the gravel version, while Gareth Cartman was begging us to tell him it's actually the result of asking AI to design an aero cycling product release. Admittedly, others did take things a touch more seriously...
It’s real. The UCI banned certain textures in fabric which provide aero gains, e.g. golf ball dimpling, so the “undershirt” that the rider is showing effectively dimples the jersey.
No, I don’t have one, nor am I planning on getting one.
— Rob Green (@rg807) June 7, 2024
Is it faster?
That will be what customers are asking.
Not a new question for bike racing kit!
— Martin Williamson (@quickerbybike) June 7, 2024
I hate to think what would happen if we got one of these in for review...
The doctors and physios of the Critérium du Dauphiné were working overtime last night, the peloton trying to get its head around the sheer scale of how many riders were involved in the high-speed crash that brought an end to racing on stage five yesterday afternoon. The person behind the @keyshawn__bava account on Twitter/X shared roadside footage of the incident that shows the quite incredible high-speeds that riders were sliding down the wet road at.
Le pauvre chien qui a eu la peur de sa vie 😵🐶 #Dauphinépic.twitter.com/ehQDhVNljf
— 𝕌𝕣𝕓𝕒𝕚𝕟 𝔾𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕖𝕣 (@keyshawn__bava) June 6, 2024
British pro Fred Wright was one of those involved, explaining to ITV and the other TV cameras: "Everyone had that feeling, 'it's a little bit slippy maybe'. We were racing to the top of the climb to get into that descent in a good position. It was a straight road but maybe just a touch on the brakes and bikes underneath people at the front... when that happens there's not really much you can do.
"It's a memory I don't think I'm going to forget for a long time, I was just sliding downhill for what felt like a long time, I've never slid on my back... a good 300 metres, didn't know where my bike was, just sliding, hoping to stop at some point. Pretty scary stuff."
Team Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed that Dylan van Baarle and Steven Kruijswijk will miss the Tour de France, the former suffering the suspected fractured collarbone many predicted when he was seen sat on the roadside with his arm in a sling. Kruijswijk has "a small fracture in his hip".
The UAE Team Emirates medical update confirmed that SIX of the team's seven riders were affected, all "provisionally cleared to race" today. Dr Adrian Rotunno earned his money yesterday...
Unreal stat: 6 out of 7 (!) UAE Team Emirates riders crashed today ar the #Dauphine. Fortunately, all are cleared to race tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/lyKXGwiiFX
— Luc Grefte (@LucGrefte) June 6, 2024
Kruijswijk, Van Baarle, Ådne Holter, Rémy Rochas, Axel Mariault, Laurens Huys, Milan Menten and Luke Durbridge were the DNFs from yesterday, while Intermarché–Wanty's Kobe Goosens is listed as a rider who will not start stage six. Let's see how everyone else feels this morning... stiff, sore and bruised, I'm guessing... and having 'enjoyed' the 'joys' of trying to sleep with road rash. Grim.