News: Critérium Dauphiné Stage 3

Davide Formolo holds on from early breakaway to win stage 3 solo; race leader Primoz Roglic second on the stage ahead of GC rival Thibaut Pinot

News: Critérium Dauphiné Stage 3

Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) claimed his first victory on the roads of the Critérium du Dauphiné after a massive solo effort en route to Saint-Martin-de-Belleville. The Italian climber went for the early breakaway and dropped all his companions on the Col de la Madeleine.

Photo: https://twitter.com/dauphine

After a 66km solo effort, he maintained a 33″ gap all the way to the line ahead of the overall leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and his closest rival Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ). The general classification remains extremely tight ahead of the final week-end in the mountains.

A 154-rider pack left Corenc without Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo), who sustained injuries when they crashed during Stage 2. The Irish climber was riding the Critérium du Dauphiné for the 9th time and had to abandon the race for the first time due to a non-dislocated sacral fracture according to his team.

The riders still in the race were eager to battle from the start. Daniel Oss (Bora-Hansgrohe), Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Pierre Latour (AG2R-La Mondiale), Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates), Christopher Juul Jensen (Mitchelton-Scott), Soren Kragh Andersen and Jasha Sütterlin (Team Sunweb), Guy Niv (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Maxime Chevalier (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) cover 50.3km in the first hour of racing, but the peloton only trailed by 1’10″.

Jumbo-Visma set the pace in the bunch en route to the ascent up the Col de la Madeleine. The gap was up to 3’30″ in La Chambre (km 86), at the bottom of the climb. Davide Formolo and Pierre Latour dropped their breakaway companions after 90km before the Italian national champion then went solo a kilometre further on. At the summit, Latour trailed by 45″ and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) lead the peloton with a gap to the front of the race 5’25″.

Formolo pushed his advantage on the downhill and into the valley ahead of the final climb. Jungels and Kragh Andersen joined Latour inside the last 20km. They trailed by 3’20″ at the bottom of the final climb to Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, a 14.8km ascent with a deceptive average gradient of 6%. The gap to the bunch was down to 3’50″.

Wout van Aert kept pulling at the front and set a strong pace on the first part of the climb, the steepest section. Tom Dumoulin and Steven Kruisjwijk then took over with 10km to go. Halfway up the climb, Formolo still enjoyed a 2’50″ lead. Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) accelerated with 6km to go in the peloton and Formolo’s lead dropped to under 2 minutes.

Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) upped the ante in the final 2km of the climb but Formolo had enough energy left to make it all the way to the finish after a 66km solo ride and claim a major victory five years after the Giro stage win that caught the World’s attention. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) showed his strength again, taking second on the day after his victory at Col de Porte. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) finished right behind the Slovenian rider and remains second on the general classification (+14″).

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Davide Formolo, leader in the climbers classification: “This victory comes after weeks of training at high altitude with the team and after having raced the Strade Bianche and the Milan-Sanremo: today’s success repays the mistake made in Milan Sanremo, when I was a little too far behind on the Poggio to be able to follow Van Aert’s attack.

Today we went on the break very early, but then, when I saw that the advantage at the foot of the Col de la Madeleine would not allow us to go to the finish, I decided to fight back to try to widen the gap to the group, to give myself as much time as possible. I spent a lot of energy in the valley leading to the final climb, also because the heat was tough, so I took the ascent towards the finish line without the certainty of reaching the finish on my own, but finally I managed to achieve this success”.

Primoz Roglic: “It was a great day for us”, Roglic said. “It was a tough and fast stage, but we had the stage perfectly under control. The team was again very strong and they kept me out of trouble. For us that leading group was an ideal situation, but we could not give them 15 minutes either because Formolo was still quite close in the standings. The fact that I still managed to take bonification seconds is an extra bonus. The next two days will be very difficult and there is still a lot of climbing to come. The team, but also myself, have to keep their focus. We rely on our own strength and we have proven that we are very strong. So we have a lot of confidence for tomorrow.”

Tom Dumoulin was setting the pace in support of Roglic for half the final climb today. “Yesterday I actually felt better, but then I had a mechanical problem at the foot of the final climb. Today was a good stage to test and try out certain things with an eye on the Tour de France. On the other hand, we also want to win the Dauphiné here. We have a strong team and Primoz has shown to be very strong at the moment. My top shape is certainly not there yet, but it is going in the right direction.”

Adam Yates: “I think I’m getting better every day, like I’ve already said, I’ve not had the most ideal prep with being sick, but I feel good, getting better every day and just doing what I can without going too much into the red and really hurting myself. So, all things considered, I think I’m moving in the right direction and I’m looking forward to the next couple of days.

“I think a lot of guys are going really good, especially a couple of teams are really well organised and they’ve obviously done a lot of training over the lockdown and quarantine period and they’ve all come out really strong and you can tell the level is really high at the moment. But as a team I think we’ve also prepared really well, we’ve just got to get everyone together and start nailing it, and it will come together.”

Thibaut Pinot “I suffered quite a bit from the heat. I did not have the best feelings today,” said the Frenchman. “I suffered quite a bit from the heat. So I’m happy with this third place. There was not much more I could do”.

Emanuel Buchmann: “It was a really good race from the team. In the finale, we were in an excellent position for the last climb. Gregor stayed all the time with me and in the end, Lennard attacked, a move that got everybody in trouble. From that point, the pace was really fast and in the sprint finish, I got fourth. I think it is a good result and I’m happy with it.” –

Pavel Sivakov: “It was good to get the shape back today and back to myself. I made a mistake a bit yesterday and I was a bit empty. Egan had a bit of a hard day in the end but it’s not a problem. He’s here and he’s done two hard races. Egan told me that he was not feeling super today. So I stayed with him and tried to bring him to the final. In the finish the sprint started. I carried on and maybe with 100 metres to go I saw that he was dropped.

“We did a big block of training. Now it’s the racing and you need to top up the shape at these races. Especially for Egan, coming from altitude, he did a really big block there. It’s still a long way to the Tour, especially to the third week. We’ve got time, we don’t need to stress or worry.”

Miguel Angel Lopez: It was another good test for me, and I am happy with the form I have now. I am still not at my top shape, but step by step I am coming to the level I want to be. The final climb was a hard one, the rhythm was really high, but I managed to stay in the leading group, and I am satisfied with it. I did my best today, the feelings were really promising. Two more tough days are coming, so I am looking forward to continue building my form towards the Tour.

Bob Jungels: “It was another tough day, we knew that, but as I was feeling good at the start, I gave it a go and made it into the right move. We shared the workload until the bottom of Madeleine, but when the attacks came there I wasn’t able to follow, so I just rode the climb at my own pace. In the downhill I felt good again, but got caught on the last ascent. Still, it was a good day for the confidence and it showed me that I’m improving day by day”, said the 27-year-old Luxembourger.

Stage
1. Davide Formolo UAE Team Emirates 04:06:56
2. Primoz Roglic Team Jumbo – Visma @ 33
3. Thibaut Pinot Groupama-FDJ
4. Emanuel Buchmann Bora-Hansgrohe
5. Daniel Martinez EF Pro Cycling
6. Mikel Landa Bahrain-McLaren
7. Guillaume Martin Cofidis
8. Tadej Pogacar UAE Team Emirates
9. Pavel Sivakov Team Ineos @ 39
10. Miguel Angel Lopez Astana Pro Team
11. Nairo Quintana Team Arkea-Samsic @ 42
12. Romain Bardet AG2R La Mondiale
13. Richie Porte Trek-Segafredo
14. Egan Bernal Team Ineos
15. Pierre Rolland B&B Hotels-Vital Concept @ 49
16. Warren Barguil Team Arkea-Samsic @ 52

19. Tom Dumoulin Team Jumbo – Visma @ 01:21
26. Adam Yates Mitchelton-Scott @ 03:26
28. Geraint Thomas Team Ineos @ 05:00
30. Alejandro Valverde Movistar Team @ 05:30
43. Wout Van Aert Team Jumbo – Visma @ 12:19
61. Chris Froome Team Ineos @ 15:52
64. Hugh Carthy EF Pro Cycling
67. Mark Donovan Team Sunweb
71. Julian Alaphilippe Deceuninck-Quick Step @ 18:02
95. James Knox Deceuninck-Quick Step @ 23:18
138. André Greipel Israel Start-Up Nation @ 29:19
141. Peter Sagan Bora-Hansgrohe @ 29:23
151. Alexander Kristoff UAE Team Emirates @ 29:29

Overall
1. Primoz Roglic Team Jumbo – Visma 13:14:35
2. Thibaut Pinot Groupama-FDJ @ 14
3. Emanuel Buchmann Bora-Hansgrohe @ 20
4. Guillaume Martin Cofidis @ 24
5. Mikel Landa Bahrain-McLaren @ 26
6. Daniel Martinez EF Pro Cycling
7. Egan Bernal Team Ineos @ 31
8. Miguel Angel Lopez Astana Pro Team @ 32
9. Nairo Quintana Team Arkea-Samsic @ 35
10. Richie Porte Trek-Segafredo

Full Results Here