If anyone out there didn’t manage to see the Criterium du Dauphine that rampaged to its thrilling climax on Sunday, you missed an event that transported those who witnessed it back in time.
After hours of watching the rather dull 2014 Giro d’Italia, and a host of other races over recent years that often felt scripted, here was a crash bang wallop of an event that tore up the playbook and delivered thrills, spills and bellyaches.
It evoked memories of two decades back and more, in the days before radios, lead out bullet trains and the availability of chemicals that often made heroes out of zeros.
What did we learn? To dream again. It was that good.
Christopher Froome announced just before he got his backside handed to him in such emphatic fashion on the final stage that he believed that his Tour preparations were right on course.
“After the Dauphiné, I won’t go back to the Canaries,” Froome said a few days ago.
“We’ll do a training camp in the Alps and a bit of reconnaissance of the stages in the Pyrenees. Between now and the Tour I still have a kilogram to lose to get down to 66 to 67 kilograms for the start.”
Froome is 185 centimetres, so that equates to damn skinny in medical parlance. Perhaps he lost that annoying little kilo on the way up the final climb on Sunday?
Either way, it was the fist time Froome has shown any weakness while leading a race since he emerged as a Grand Tour challenge back in 2011 with his second at the Vuelta a Espana.
People have bad days though, it does happen. Remember, Alberto Contador bonked in 2009 in Paris to Nice and lost the race and eventually the GC too. However, that was a food issue.
For Froome, this was akin to Spain’s spanking by the Netherlands in the World Cup the other day. Some have put it down to his crash, as did Froome himself.
“I took a bit of a knock yesterday in the crash and lost a bit of energy because of that,” he said.
“I felt a bit blocked through my thighs, especially where I landed yesterday, but I’m not going to let that get me down.
“I think it’s normal that I was a little bit off and Alberto rode a fantastic race, so respect to him.”
A bluff? Or the truth? Sounds like a bit of spin to me. Truth is, no Sky leader has faced the challenge of an in-form Contador at the Tour yet. Froome we know is very good, but we’ve yet to see him truly challenged in a multi-day race.
The second lesson from the Dauphine is multi-faceted, in that we saw that Contador is back, but we also saw some weaknesses.
First of all, his team is pants. There’s no other way to describe them. Time and again the Spaniard was left alone in the high hills, and if Froome does get back to full power, Contador will have the might of Sky and their leader to answer to.
Sky’s domestiques rode some very fine bike riders off their wheels on the penultimate stage in a real show of power that was quite phenomenal. Reminiscent, in fact, of a certain Discovery team.
Contador is an immensely gifted cyclist, but he is poorly managed. How his team management can’t attract better riders to support him is beyond me. I’m not a massive fan of his but surely his palmares deserves better.
He’s still prone to making mistakes too. There was no real reason for him to lose this race yet that is what he did, spending way too long eyeballing Froome as Andrew Talansky disappeared into the distance.
Had he gone off after Talansky on the first hill and had Froome responded, he’d have known to hang back and let Sky police things, but he didn’t. And then, why should they? Contador was in yellow. If he’d chased and had Froome followed then sure, Froome may have won it, but the fact is that the Tinkoff-Saxo leader lost anyway.
Contador seemed keener to prove to Froome that he was stronger by dropping the Briton, but losing a lead like that to Talansky sent out a double message. Yes, he is stronger than Froome, but he is also vulnerable to misreading events on the road.
Thirdly, we have the ride by Talansky.
A young man, the American pulled off a brilliant ride to win and had to take on the onus to stretch the lead over the yellow jersey alone, something that took guts. He had guys on his wheel that could have won the race had he blown, but he pulled it off in spectacular fashion.
A ride so brave and courageous, and indeed so beautiful, that it fully warranted the title of the 2014 Criterium du Dauphine. Mesmerising stuff.
These kind of things just don’t happen these days. The pre-Tour de France favourite and race leader doesn’t blow up on the penultimate stage and lose a lead like that, certainly not Froome, and a rider as seasoned as Contador doesn’t let a break do such phenomenal damage.
It was compelling stuff, and a great race for anyone to see who thinks cycling is boring.
Lieuwe Westra taught Katusha’s guys a lesson when he won Stage 7 too, and though it may be a cliché, they now know that ‘it ain’t over til it’s over.’
If there are any aspiring professionals out there who aren’t the greatest climbers, Westra gave a masterclass in riding at your own pace up hills. He was composure personified up the final hill. As the Katusha pair did a very passable impression of two Siberian Huskies stuck in the back of a parked car on a summer’s day, he kept his cool and rolled past them for a memorable win.
Finally, we relearnt that Jan Bakelants is a crazy little diamond. His victory on Stage 6 over the aforementioned Westra, threading his bike past the Astana man, guided by his balls alone, had me out of my seat and cheering like mad.
Some may remember Bakelants from the Stage 2 Corsica portion of last year’s tour when he showed his colours by snatching a brilliant win by about three metres from a frothing peloton.
A glorious example, all week long, of just what the most beautiful sport on earth can truly be.
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