Critérium du Dauphiné - Stage 2

The second stage in the Dauphine was another hard-fought, physical battle up against this stacked field but slightly more straightforward with a legit summit finish in the Alps. We knew going in that today would begin to set the GC.

I sniffed around at the start for the chance to get up the road but could feel the lack of high-speed racing and was never confident enough to get with the mix that eventually went away. I wasn’t too bummed as it was pretty clear they would be kept on a short leash by the rampaging Jumbo-Visma squad.

The penultimate Cat 1 climb began to ramp things up and the boiling heat had me overheating and suffering to hang into the group over the top, which was about half of the full peloton. (I would see after the race that this was my highest 20-minute heart rate of the year...).

Surfing down the dicey descent and through the valley before the next climb, we knew we wanted to keep Jack and Adam in a decent place to test themselves.

While flying through cities and around traffic dividers, suddenly there were brakes screeching and bodies on the ground as I barely held it up. I was lucky the guys behind slowed enough to make it a gentle collision. I saw my teammate Damo soar into the ditch. I stayed there for a moment to make sure he was moving before beginning the chase back to the bunch, which was now in full lead-out mode for the climb. The sweltering temps had Adam in desperate need for some cooling so I made a last-ditch effort to call the car up, get back to it, and sprint back to Adam with a load of bottles to dump over his head and put into his bottle cages just as the climb began to get steep.

Lights out for me after that and I found a group to ride to the top with while suffering for the next 15 minutes as I recovered from that max effort to get the bottles. I eventually settled in and even caught up with my old teammate Michi Schar and together we grinded our way up.

I was super fortunate to reach the finish and buses before the massive hailstorm rolled in. There were many riders not so lucky and seeing the welts on their back made me feel a little sick and very frustrated that they had to endure that after an already tough day. I don’t know if there is a solution for such moments to protect riders from the natural elements, but it doesn’t seem right that guys have to finish a race with literal torture marks peppered along their back, with nowhere to hide, and the constant fear that any stoppage of pedaling will result in a missed time cut and a trip home from the race.

For stage 3, it’s onto even bigger mountains. We will climb the Col de la Madeleine, which I will always remember from my first Dauphine in 2009. It was my first time racing in the Alps and an eye-opening experience in suffering while going uphill.