“Modern cycling” is how Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) described the circus finale of stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, with four of cycling’s top riders coming to the fore on an expected sprint day to put on a show.
It was Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) who surprisingly lit things up after the final classified climb en route to Montluçon, attacking away with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in his wheel.
Commentators asked the question of where is Evenepoel? But shortly after, they had their answer, as the gold helmet of the Olympic champion bridged across on his own to ensure he wasn’t going to miss the party.
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With Evenepoel on board, and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) coming across too, the group survived all the way to the line, denying the sprinters, albeit narrowly, but it brought the spotlight onto the modern-day superstars on a day when they were meant to be quiet.
“All good, a bit of a surprise to have raced the final for the stage win, but that’s where modern cycling goes,” said Evenepoel at the finish to CyclingProNet.
“You never know what to expect in a final like this. In the end, it was a nice bit of racing, I think we just got it with Buitrago and Mathieu [van der Poel] going early in the sprint. It was pretty special and pretty nice to be up there, positive signs.”
When it came to the sprint, Evenepoel finished fourth and missed out on the bonus seconds, meaning he’s already 10 seconds down on Pogačar and six behind Vingegaard on GC, but he looked every bit their equal with his stunning solo bridge across.
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The mountains are yet to come at the end of the week, but the signs that Evenepoel is at an all-time high, as he suggested in his pre-race press conference, appear to be there. He also moved into the best young rider’s white jersey.
“It was headwind in the final. Normally, Mathieu is the strongest, and he launched at 250 metres, so it was pretty hard to stay up there. I think I came out of Mathieu’s wheel a little bit soon,” he recalled.
“Tadej and Jonas came last out of the wheels, so I think that’s the reason why the sprint ended up like this.
“Normally on paper, Mathieu would win this sprint easily, but he launched far away to at least have a shot for the stage win. I think it was good for racing, but a bitter feeling for the sprinters for all the work they did.”
While Vingegaard managed to surprise himself and beat Evenepoel to the finish, admitting that he was trying to cooperate less in the late break, he too was very satisfied with the early signs at the Dauphiné.
“I guess I was the one cooperating the least, because I thought I would be the loser of the sprint. At least I was compared to Tadej, so I lost four seconds – that’s of course not ideal,” said Vingegaard at the finish.
“But I thought I would actually get no seconds in the end, so to get six is quite good, I would say.
“I had a good day, to be honest, I’m happy with how it went and happy I could make a difference. I guess it’s the first time I finished second in a bunch sprint, so no, I’m happy, and Tadej was just faster than I was, so congrats to him.”
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