Critérium du Dauphiné - Stage 4

Some gnarly alpine climbs with no flat roads between them made Stage 4 a very physically demanding day. It’s clear now that the peloton is split into a couple distinct groups:

the GC teams and leaders still in the mix looking to put pressure on each other
other “usual” leaders in their own right, who are down on time hunting for a stage out of a breakaway,
the rest of the group slugging along and getting through with the hope to be better off for it.

We’ve raced in this area many times, but organizers continue to find new roads to throw at us. Some of them in deplorable condition, which accounted for a big crash and claimed some of the race’s top riders as DNFs early in the day.

Yes, crappy roads are part of the game, but shouldn’t be decisive in the outcome at a race as big as this and with so much climbing. Fortunately for us, we had my Dauphine roommate Jack up the road in a very strong break with names that read like a top 10 from any of the world’s toughest races.

We were a long way behind him as he battled for the stage but continued to hear crackles from the team radio as our director pushed him on. In the end, a very solid fourth place on the stage and another confirmation that we will keep seeing him at the front of these races as he continues to progress.

I was happy to get through another day and couldn’t help but remark again at the quality of the riders that filled my group, which finished more than 20 min behind Jack. I think today was the biggest day of climbing I’ve done all year. Not to say I haven’t been climbing and training well, but I definitely lack the super climb condition needed to get into the player’s club this week.

Tomorrow’s final stage is another doozy that uses the same finish as today but with a new series of stout climbs as before. Seems like a cop-out to use the same finish and also have it another uphill affair when they could easily have created a different dynamic of excitement with something new and maybe not finish on a mountain?