Critérium du Dauphiné stage 7 live - Showdown in the high mountains
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25.3km to go Charmig is caught. It's Campenaerts vs the bunch.
Jumbo-Visma are making inroads now, closing to 90 seconds behind Campenaerts. They're on the heels of Charmig now. The bunch is reduced but still sizeable with 26km remaining.
Perez has been caught by the peloton, who are about to reel in Bayer as well. So now we have just two men in front of the bunch - Charamig 30 seconds ahead and Campenaerts 1:45 ahead.
In the middle chase group, Charmig has ridden clear of Bayer and Perez.
Four Jumbo-Visma riders on the front of the bunch: Van Hooydonck, Van Baarle, Valter, Vingegaard. It looks like they have Benoot further down the group.
Here's what we're dealing with. The climb does get much gentler for a few kilometres nearer the top. (Image credit: ASO)
30km to go 10km to to the top of the Col du Mollard and Campenaerts will move into the lead of the mountains classification if he can stay out front by the summit. He has 1:25 in hand.
Campenaerts is tapping it out at his own tempo. He's losing time but he's still a healthy 1:30 up on the three chasers, but the peloton is closing in to two minutes now.
More mountain goodness (Image credit: Getty Images)
Here's our lone leader on the mountain (Image credit: Getty Images)
35km to go Thompson is caught by the peloton, so we have a simpler situation now on the Col du Mollard... - Campenaerts leads solo
- Perez, Charmig, Bayer are at 1:50
- Peloton is at 3 minutes
- Gruppetto (inc Laporte, Bjerg, Burgaudeau) is at 11 minutes
Jumbo-Visma are back on the nose of the peloton, taking back over from Ineos who dictated on the Madeleine.
The Latour group is rather predictably caught by the peloton, which is 3:30 down on Campenaerts as it hits the Mollard.
37.5km to go The Col du Mollard begins. Campenaerts hits it with a lead of two minutes over Perez, Charmig, and Bayer.
Pierre Latour, I kid you not, has gone on the attack again. He's with teammate Alexis Vuillermoz and Arkea-Samsic's Simon Gugliemi in a trio just ahead of the bunch.
On the valley road that leads towards our final climbs, Campenaerts is powering away from the rest. Perez is now back with Charmig and Bayer and they're 90 seconds down on our solo leader.
This was Ineos on the Madeleine a little earlier (Image credit: Getty Images)
Latour is back in the peloton. We were right all along - this is the most Pierre Latour thing ever.
We're coming to the bottom of the descent and Campenaerts has lost a little of his lead but is still 50 seconds out in front of Perez. Charmig and Bayer are at 1:10, while Thompson and Cavagna are at 1:50. Latour has dropped through the groups.
Situation as it stands - Campenaerts
- Perez at 1:05
- Charmig and Bayer at 1:15
- Latour at 1:35
- Thompson and Cavagna at 2:00
- Peloton at 2:25
Latour is now in the virtual lead of the mountains classification, but he has been dropped by Charmig and Bayer on this descent.
KOM points at Col de la Madeleine 1. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), 15 pts
2. Anthony Perez (Cofidis), 12 pts
3. Pierre Latour (Total Energies), 10 pts
4. Anthon Charmig (Uno X), 8 pts
5. Tobias Bayer (Alpecin Deceuninck), 6 pts
6. Rémi Cavagna (Soudal Quick-Step), 5 pts
7. Reuben Thompson (Groupama-FDJ), 4 pts
8. Omar Fraile (Ineos Grenadiers), 3 pts
9. Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers), 2 pts
10. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), 1 pt
For those just joining, I'll try to recap After a fast start, we had a four-man breakaway - Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Remi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), and Madis Mihkels (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) - followed by a four-man chase group - Anthon Charmig (Uno-X), Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Reuben Thompson (Groupama-FDJ), and Matteo Vercher (TotalEnergies) - and then the peloton. On the Col de la Madeleine, Campenaerts dropped Mihkels, then Cavagna, then Perez to lead solo over the top by a minute over Perez. Cavagna, Mihkels, Thompson and Vercher then fell behind Charmig and Bayer, who were later joined by Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies), who attacked from the bunch and used Vercher to get across. Latour made his move shortly before Ineos came forward to set a high pace, thinning the bunch and reducing the gap to the breakaway to just 2:30.
A long descent now and we could see some further reshuffles on the way down.
The peloton are only 2:30 back from Campenaerts as they head over the top. Ineos took it up on the Madeleine and thinned the bunch while also easting into the break's advantage. The stage winner will surely come from the GC group today.
Top of the Madeleine - 72km to go Campenaerts leads solo over the Col de la Madeleine on stage 7 of the Dauphiné. Impressively, he has opened a gap of one minute on those upper slopes, with Perez his closest chaser.
Latour has made his way across to the chase group, with Charmig and Bayer. Thompson has been dropped from that group.
And now Perez is distanced, so Campenaerts is alone in the lead on the upper slopes of the Madeleine.
Up front, Cavagna is distanced by Campenaerts and Perez.
Mihkels has been dropped from the chase group as well and he'll be back in the bunch shortly.
Vercher has dropped away, having helped Latour on his way. The Frenchman came in for a bit of light teasing earlier on this live blog but he has closed to within 2:20 of the head of the race.
Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) is among those dropped now. He already lost a heap of time on stage 5. More quality riders like David De La Cruz (Astana) and the AG2R duo of Nans Peters and Franck Bonnamour can't keep up either, which is indicative of the pace Ineos are setting.
Former yellow jersey Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) is dropped as the peloton thins under this Ineos pressure.
Ineos Grenadiers take it up in the peloton The gap to the leaders had gone back out above five minutes but it's coming down again now as the team of Egan Bernal, Dani Martinez, and Carlos Rodriguez look to impose themselves on the stage.
Mihkels is dropped from the lead group.
More attacks from the bunch now half-way up the Col de la Madeleine, as Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa Samsic) goes, followed by Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto-Dstny).
Latour has another teammate up the road in that chase group, Vercher, who's now dropping back to help.
Latour has ridden away from his teammate Burgaudeau, who's in the polka-dots, but he's only dangling just ahead of the peloton. It's classic Pierre Latour stuff.
A few more - Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) and Gianmarco Garofoli (Astana Qazaqstana) - try to go after them but to no avail.
Now we're on the first HC climb of the Dauphiné, we have some fresh attacks from the peloton. TotalEnergies try to go with a duo of Pierre Latour and Mathieu Burgaudeau.
This is what we're dealing with. (Image credit: ASO)
97km to go Anyway, we're slowing down now as the riders hit the lower slopes of the Col de la Madeleine. The breakaway quartet (Campenaerts, Cavagna, Perez, Mihkels) have a lead of 90 seconds over the four chasers (Charmig, Bayer, Thompson, Vercher) and 5:30 on the peloton.
50.7km ridden in that first hour. Whoosh.
This was the breakaway forming a little earlier. (Image credit: Getty Images)
100km to go Nearly time for the climbing and the leading quartet have nearly five minutes on a peloton being led by Jumbo-Visma. The four chasers are in between, 90 seconds down on the front of the race.
The gap rises to four minutes now as we approach the Madeleine.
The peloton allows the four leaders to stretch their lead to nearly three minutes. That quartet is still stuck in no man's land at 45 seconds.
The nascent breakaway reaches the intermediate sprint in Grignon after 29km, and it's Mihkels who's first to the line ahead of Campenaerts and Perez.
The peloton has started to calm down but not before a fresh wave of attacks, bringing another group of four into a chasing counter-attack. In there are Anthon Charmig (Uno-X), Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Reube Thompson (Groupama-FDJ), and Matteo Vercher (Total Energies).
We finally have a move with some daylight and it contains Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Remi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), and Madis Mihkels (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty).
128km to go We've got an intermediate sprint coming up in around 10km, then after that it's another 20km or so to the foot of the Madeleine, which might be judge and jury in this breakaway battle.
But that comes to nothing.
Mountains classification leader and polka-dot jersey wearer Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) gets himself into the latest move.
Still fast and furious, with no breakaway forming. At least we'll be getting to the mountains nice and quickly.
Appetite for the breakaway is strong. A fast start with plenty of attacks but nothing sticking in the first few kilometres.
We're off! The riders reach kilometre zero, the flag is waved, and stage 7 of the Dauphiné is underway.
We're about to get underway so now's the time to catch up on yesterday's action, including a stage 6 report, the latest standings, and plenty of nice photos. Critérium du Dauphiné: Zimmerman wins stage 6 amid GC stalemate
This is a crucial day in the battle for the overall title. Tomorrow's final stage is hard and features some steep stuff, including the spectacularly punchy finish above Grenoble, but today's stage plays host to the the bigger mountains. First up, after 50km or so on the flat, is the Col de la Madeleine (25.1km at 6.2%), then it's over to the lesser-known Col du Mollard (18.5km at 5.8%), and quickly on to the summit finish on the Col de la Croix de Fer (13.1km at 6.2%). That final climb doesn't seem like much but it's sort of split in two, with a gentle opening section followed by a pretty vicious final 5km.
The riders have already rolled out, and they're currently working their way through the neutral zone, before the stage proper begins.
Here was the start line in Porte de Savoie a little earlier. (Image credit: ASO)
Source: Cyclingnews
