Van Aert, immediately on top
June 5 th 2022 - 15:07
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) raised his arms victoriously as early as stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2022, outsprinting Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) and Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) after an intense day of racing towards Beauchastel. The bunch went all out on the final ascent of the day to drop the main sprinters and battle it out for the first yellow and blue jersey.
In the end, Van Aert was the fastest, claiming his fourth stage win in the Critérium du Dauphiné. Among his previous successes, the Belgian star had already claimed victory on the first day of action in 2020, in Saint-Christo-en-Jarez. He now wants to defend his overall leadership and then hand it over to Primoz Roglic. But the first day already showed the battle should be quite open on the way to Plateau de Solaison, to be reached next Sunday.
The 154 riders of the 74th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné start under the morning Sun, to face two loops around La Voulte-sur-Rhône and Beauchastel. Attackers quickly get into action but several teams are determined to control the breakaway. The first ascent of the day, Col de Leyrisse (cat-2, summit at km 19.5), sees some strong climbers get away.
Over the top, Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-KTM) has managed to open a gap of 1’30’’ to the bunch. Maxime Bouet (Arkea-Samsic) and Laurens Huys (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) are chasing in between the front of the race and the peloton. They quickly bridge the gap to Rolland after the summit and the gap to the bunch is up to 3’10’’ at km 23.
Rolland chases the polka dots
BikeExchange-Jayco quickly take the lead of the bunch to control the break with the support of Jumbo-Visma. They bring the gap down to around 2 minutes, while two riders are forced to early abandons: Niklas Märkl (Team DSM), who was dropped on the first ascent, and Imanol Erviti (Movistar), who suffered a crash in the parade leading to km 0 and then held on for about 30km.
At the front, Roland collects the KOM points on the ascents of Côte des Baraques (km 41) and Côte du Chambon de Bavas (km 93.1), to make sure he will take the polka-dot jersey on the podium if he finishes the stage without incidents. Participating in the Critérium du Dauphiné for the 13th time, the French climber dominated the KOM standings when he first rode it, in 2008.
All out on the Côte du Chambon de Bavas
The attackers go through the finish line for the first time and take on the final 62.7km loop with a lead of 2’05’’. The intensity seriously picks up towards the final ascent of the day, Côte du Chambon de Bavas (km 155.8), again. Trek-Segafredo put the hammer down to get rid of the sprinters.
At the summit, with 36km to go, Rolland leads the way, the peloton trail by 30’’. The main sprinters, including Dylan Groenwegen (BikeExchange-Jayco), are 40’’ further behind.
The early attackers are caught with 32km to go, and more attacks fly at the front. Mikkel Honoré (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) goes solo with 32km to go, but his lead never gets higher than 15’’ and the Danish rider is caught 10km later as Ineos Grenadiers up the pace.
A hard chase and a tight sprint
Groenewegen’s BikeExchange-Jayco and Mozzato’s B&B Hotels-KTM drive a hard chase to bring their sprinters back at the front. The gap is down to 20’’ into the last 8km, but Trek-Segafredo, TotalEnergies and Jumbo-Visma work together to make sure their chasers wouldn't return.
In a reduced bunch, Rémi Cavagna (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) attacks with 1.5km to go. Christophe Laporte reels him for Jumbo-Visma, and Ineos Grenadiers surge to the front with Filippo Ganna and Michal Kwiatkowski trying to launch Ethan Hayter to victory. The plan was very well executed. But Wout van Aert was the fastest.
Van Aert: "I can already feel the good legs"
"Looking at the profile, we could expect a hard finale. There were lots of teams interested in dropping sprinters. I was able to hang on and I felt good for the sprint so that’s really nice. On stages like today, I can already feel the good legs and that’s a pleasure. But you still have to beat guys like [Ethan] Hayter, who is doing really great this season. It was tough to pass him but in the end I did it so I’m happy, furthermore since I’ve been working on my sprint recently because I didn’t have the best sensations in this area during the Spring. The coming stages suit me quite well so we’ll try to defend the jersey if possible, and hopefully I can hand it over to Primoz this week-end, but it’s a lot of hard stages coming, difficult to control."