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Saturday, June 14, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. - George Bernard Shaw
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Current racing:
- June 8 - 15: Critérium du Dauphiné
Upcoming racing:
- June 15 - 22: Tour de Suisse
- June 18 - 22: Baloise Belgium Tour
- July 5 - 27: Tour de France
Latest completed racing:
- June 13: GP Kanton Aargau
- June 8: Brussels Cycling Classic
- May 9 - June 1: Giro d'Italia
- May 29 - June 1: Tour of Norway
- May 14 - 18: 4 Jours de Dunkerque
- May 18: Rund um Köln
- May 13: Classique Dunkerque
- May 11: Tro-Bro Léon
- May 10: GP du Morbihan
- May 9: Tour du Finistère
We posted the race organizer's report with the results.
Here's the report from stage winner Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG:
Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG reclaimed control of the Critérium du Dauphiné on Friday afternoon, with the Slovenian winning stage 6 and putting over a minute into most of his rivals. With the victory, Pogačar rode back into the leader’s yellow jersey ahead of the weekend.
Tadej Pogacar wins stage six. Sirotti photo
It was a performance to be remembered by the Emirati squad, with Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez providing a textbook uphill lead-out as though they were on the slopes of Milano-San Remo in the spring.
With the pair producing a lightning pace that dropped the race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), Pogačar grasped his opportunity to isolate Jonas Vingegaard on the slopes of the penultimate climb.
Earlier in the day, Domen Novak and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates had worked in unison to ensure that the breakaway would stand little chance in the finale. With their lead, and that of opportunist attacker Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) squashed, Wellens and Narváez could go to work in setting up the move of Pogačar.
Once Vingegaard was isolated, the world champion simply set a ferocious pace whilst seated and rode the Dane off his wheel. With 7.3km of the day to ride, Pogačar went alone in pursuit of the sole survivor from the day’s breakaway, Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost). The 26-year-old was soon up alongside the man in pink, and with 6.3km to go, the world champion dispatched of Baudin’s presence.
Between here and the finish atop the Côte de la Cry, Pogačar continued to extend his lead. Once he crossed the line, that advantage over the second-placed Vingegaard had exceeded a minute, putting Pogačar firmly into the yellow jersey as race leader.
The world champion will now begin Saturday’s stage 7 with a 43-second advantage over Vingegaard, with Lipowitz and further 11 seconds down in third.
Pogačar: “We had our own plan but then Visma started to go full gas on the first category climb and actually before the start, I didn’t know, but this climb I definitely did before and it brought back memories.
“The team was super strong, they were all really really incredible today, all the team actually. In the end, I felt good and we said to go from the bottom of the climb on the steepest part. We wanted to commit, we had nothing to lose and we can only gain.
“In the end, it was a hot day, it was a hard day, and I needed to hurry up to see the finish of Urška on the Tour de Suisse. I was just in time, so all good!
“I think I was feeling really good and when I attacked, it was an all out effort and I knew it was around 15 minutes after that to the top. I had to pace myself after the attack and the feeling was there, the legs were turning and it was just in my favour to be in the front then and gain time.
“One minute is good and I am super happy.”
Here's the Dauphiné report from second-place Jonas Vingegaard's Team Visma | Lease a Bike
The riders of Team Visma | Lease a Bike put in a strong performance in the Critérium du Dauphiné, but were unable to contest the stage win. Jonas Vingegaard finished in second place behind winner Tadej Pogačar, with Matteo Jorgenson taking fourth.
The short sixth stage in France proved to be a brutal one. Team Visma | Lease a Bike stayed well-positioned near the front and took control halfway through the stage, leading the peloton. After several accelerations, a select group of favorites emerged for the final climb to Combloux, including Vingegaard, Jorgenson, and Ben Tulett.
Jonas Vingegaard finishes second. Sirotti photo
An attack by Pogačar on the slopes of the Côte de Domancy left his rivals behind. The Slovenian rode unthreatened to the stage win and the yellow leader’s jersey. Vingegaard crossed the line in second place, while Jorgenson distanced Remco Evenepoel to secure fourth. Teammate Tulett followed shortly after in ninth place.
Sports director Grischa Niermann: “Pogačar was the strongest today. In the end, the time gaps at the finish were significant. Of course, we had hoped Jonas could stay closer on the final climb. This was a stage that really suited Pogačar, and it was clear from the start that Team UAE had a plan today. When someone is stronger, all you can do is accept it and congratulate him on the victory.”
Tomorrow, another tough mountain stage awaits the yellow-and-black formation, with a summit finish at Valmeinier 1800. Vingegaard now trails Pogačar by 43 seconds in the general classification. “We’ll give it another try tomorrow. It won’t be easy, but I’m happy with our way of racing and the fighting spirit of the team. We’ll take that into the next stage”, Niermann concludes.
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Here's the Critérium du Dauphiné report from Remco Evenepoel's Team Soudal Quick-Step:
The first of the three crunch stages of this edition was also the shortest one of the week, just 127 kilometers from Valserhône to Combloux, but the presence of the Mont-Saxonnex, Domancy and Cry climbs promised to do some damage to the general classification led by Remco Evenepoel following his victory in the time trial.
The action kicked off more than 40 kilometers from the finish, on the steepest part of Mont-Saxonnex, where an injection of pace at the front of the peloton whittled it down to just ten riders, including the yellow jersey. In the valley, they were joined by others, and the group continued to travel at a high pace until the foot of Domancy, the short but gruelling ascent made famous by Bernard Hinault at the 1980 World Championships, when the Frenchman soloed to the rainbow jersey.
Remco Evenepoel finishes stage six. Sirotti photo
A separation was made there following an attack of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), who went on to take the victory, while Remco rode at his own pace in the scorching hot weather, without going into red, while trying to limit the losses as much as possible. Soudal Quick-Step’s 25-year-old concluded the stage in fifth place and is now fourth overall ahead of the race’s toughest stage, which has in store three classified climbs and more than 4000 vertical meters.
Team INEOS Grenadiers posted this Dauphiné report:
Michael Leonard had a fantastic stage six in the mountains at Criterium du Dauphine after his breakaway heroics, while Carlos Rodriguez moved up the GC.
Leonard managed to make the seven-man break inside the first 30km of the race after an attacking start. The break tackled the first two of the five categorised climbs of the day, before it was reduced to two up the Côte de Mont-Saxonnex, with Leonard and Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) staying away inside the final 50km.
Carlos Rodriguez before the start of stage two. Sirotti photo
The Canadian rider continued to maintain his lead of a minute and a half with 25km remaining, while Rodriguez was in the chasing group behind alongside the GC favourites.
After a fantastic effort, Leonard was unable to hold the pace inside the final 10km. As attacks came thick and fast from the peloton behind in the fight for the yellow jersey, Rodriguez managed to hold on and come home 14th to move up to 11th on the GC.
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Here's the Dauphiné report from Team Groupama-FDJ:
It was expected that the general classification would change on stage 6 of the Critérium du Dauphiné this Friday. The big fight among the favorites did take place towards Combloux, from quite far off, and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet managed to hold and enter the “money time” with the big guns. The French rider ultimately crossed the finish line in fifteenth place, while Tadej Pogacar won solo.
Before heading into the proper mountains this weekend, a short but explosive sixth stage (126 km) was planned this Friday. With forty-five kilometres to go, the riders first had to tackle the Mont-Saxonnex climb (5.5 km at 8.6%) before heading towards the sequence of two climbs, Domancy (2.5 km at 9.3%) and Combloux (2.7 km at 7.7%), in the last ten kilometres. Mainly focused on Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet in this decisive day for the GC contenders, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team still tried to join the breakaway in what proved to be a fast start but didn’t manage to do so.
Stage six gets rolling.
Eight riders eventually took the lead, but their advantage didn’t get over the two-minute mark. After less than two hours of racing, the peloton was already at the bottom of the Mont-Saxonnex climb, and it completely exploded after a few hundred metres of climbing due to a sharp acceleration from Visma-Lease a Bike. “Guillaume was a bit far back when they started pushing,” commented Benoît Vaugrenard. “The guys were caught off guard a bit and weren’t in a good position”. “It went very fast approaching the climb and we couldn’t get back up,” Guillaume added. “I already put myself in trouble at that point and was dropped even before the bottom because it was so fast. In the end, I did a great climb, but I think I left some bullets there.”
With more than 40 kilometres to go, the yellow jersey group quickly reduced to ten riders or so, with Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet doing his best to limit his losses a bit behind. Following the downhill, the French climber took advantage of a larger chasing group forming to finally bridge across to the first “peloton”, which was then made up of around 30 riders. After a valley section, the final two climbs were tackled, and Tadej Pogacar pushed up the pace straight away with his teammates.
The group immediately exploded, the world champion quickly went solo, while the Groupama-FDJ leader fought his way to the summit of Combloux to finally claim fifteenth place, 2’29 behind the Slovenian. “I wasn’t feeling too bad at the start of the final climb, but I felt like I was struggling more at the end,” he said. “I wasn’t feeling as good as on the previous climb, perhaps also because of the heat. In any case, given the feelings of the last few days, it was a bit unexpected to be in the first group. So it’s rather reassuring.” “It was a high-flying stage,” added Benoît. “Guillaume rode a great stage and fought well. He’s where he belongs, and that’s very promising for the upcoming days”.
Thanks to today’s performance, he climbed into the top 20 overall (17th) with two major mountain stages coming up. “Tomorrow is the toughest stage of the week in terms of elevation,” concluded Benoît. “We’ll try to keep this momentum going. The top-10 goal overall may have seemed high, but it’s not impossible.” “I prefer longer climbs to explosive ones, so this is a good stage for me on paper,” added Guillaume. The Col de la Madeleine and the Col de la Croix de Fer will be on the program before the summit finish at Valmeinier 1800.
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Matthews' Team Jayco AlUla posted note:
MEDICAL UPDATE – Michael Matthews:
During a recent altitude training camp, GreenEDGE Cycling Medical Team discovered signs of a pulmonary embolism and have subsequently decided to pause all physical activity for the rider until further notice, as a precautionary measure.
Michael Matthews winning this year's Eschborn-Frankfurt race.
Matthews’ health condition is stable. The Medical Team are now thoroughly investigating the extent of the issue and possible cause, to define a safe and optimal recovery process for the athlete. During this period of investigation, as a safeguarding measure, Matthews will refrain from competition to ensure there is no risk to his health and well-being, therefore ruling out his participation in the upcoming Tour de France.
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