From Jaques Anquetil (1963 and 1965) to Thomas Vingegaard (2023), practically all the great Tour de France champions shone at some point in the Dauphiné. Eddy Merxck himself (1971), also Bernard Hinault (77, 79 and 81), Miguel Induráin (95 and 96) or Chris Frome (2013, 15 and 16) did it. They all chose this one-week race as their approach to the Tour and, when they won it, they also dominated the Grand Boucle. But it is one thing to win and quite another to overwhelm. That is what the skinny Dane from Jumbo, current Tour winner, has done against a squad very similar to the one he will find himself in three weeks from Bilbao, with the exception, no less, of Tadej Pogacar.
You have to go back 30 years to discover a superiority greater than that exercised by Vingegaard in this edition of the Dauphiné, in which he has surpassed the British Adam Yates in 2m23s. In 1993, the Swiss ONCE player Laurent Defaux surpassed the Colombian Oliverio Rincón by three minutes. But it is that among the rest of the one-week races on the UCI circuit, only Aitor Osa in the Tour of the Basque Country in 2002 achieved a greater advantage.
The preponderance of the Dane three weeks before the Tour is incomparable against any rival. Two victories and the general. And O’Connor, Hindley, Haig, Guillaume Martin, Mentjes, Bernal, Majka, Enric Mas, Mikel Landa, Gaudu or Carapaz, all top-ten in a Grand Tour, more than three minutes away. Some, like the Spanish, more than eight, this disaster for reflection. He also did it without those who will be his great bodyguards on the Tour, since Sepp Kuss, Kelderman and Van Aert were not there.
Last year, when he surprisingly won the Tour, he could only be second in this race behind the Slovenian Roglic, then team leader. But the exhibition of both was also vintage. In the last stage they entered the finish line together and hand in hand, demonstrating their dominance. Then no one suspected that he could easily beat the new cycling cannibal, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar. Today there are no doubts. The message is clear. Vingegaard will be at least as favorite as his greatest rival.
In the last stage, the Italian Ciccone won the climb to La Bastille, in Grenoble. But even there Vingegaard left his rivals behind for the overall. “Yates wanted to accelerate on the final climb, and Majka was in front, but I felt good and I tried solo. I think I can be very satisfied with the whole week. I’m in good shape. In a way, I am surprised by the differences in the general classificationâ€, commented the Dane, whose habitual discretion should not mislead, the warning to sailors is very forceful.
