Velominati Super Prestige: Critérium du Dauphiné

I'll have mine medium rare with extra clenbuterol, please. Photo via Cycling Weekly

The Tour de France looms on the horizon, and those riders planning to race are putting the final touches on their form – or going into last-minute panic mode, final exam cram-style. The Critérium Dauphiné has long been a favorite preparation race serving both purposes rather well.

It’s a favorite of the Tour’s GC contenders as it usually features stages that, if not identical to key stages from the Tour, will at least feature many of the same climbs; habitual Tour winners like Indurain, Armstrong, and Clentador have traditionally used this race as their preferred method of final preparation; riders seeking additional form will take the beating taken from a week of suffering and have just enough time to recover prior to the Tour. And, of course, riders who have aspirations in July may also find they are a few kilos heavy yet and may indulge in some ultra-lean Spanish beef in order to get to fighting weight.

It’s also a dangerous gamble: ride too hard at the Critérium and you could fire off the Guns of Navarone and enter the Tour in a state of fatigue, as Pharmy did in 2003. A delicate balance, this.

The challenge in predicting the results of a preparation race such as this is that the favorites for the Tour are (hopefully) peaking in one month, not during this event. But they’ll be good – maybe good enough to win. But probably not. Combine that with that the notion that a rider with little hope in July may be looking for glory and will be in peak form, leading to an unexpected result – a review of last year’s race with Jani Brajkovic is a great example of this case.

With that we kick off into the first minor-stage VSP for the Critérium Dauphiné. Being a week-long stage race, the points on offer are 7 for first, 5 for second, 4 for third, 3 for fourth, 2 for fifth, with the usual allotment of bonus points for getting the rider right but the place wrong. Also, there are no rest days, so no rest day swaps, but we will have our usual approach for riders who drop out. Piti Principle applies as always. Also review the guide, being careful to note that the rules have changes a bit this year, and we may not have completely updated the guide yet, so if there’s a question, ask.

Best of luck to all.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Steampunk says:

Jun 4 2011 at 9:40 am

Actually, for all the legitimate maligning about the Leopard-Trek kit, which is pretty bland and hard to distinguish from all the other black, white, and blue kits in a race, I do like the underlined 0. I don't know what it is or what it means, but I like its simplicity.

VSP PICKS:

1. Good Cuddles
2. Van den Broke
3. Wiggo's Last Chance
4. Robert's Kept Me Gesink
5. Sammy Sandwich
Erik says:

Jun 4 2011 at 11:04 am

Frank! Help. I can't log in and it says that there is no email with my email. Argh.

When you get a chance. It isn't that important. I just like being logged in.

Maybe I should put Gesink in Sanchez's spot.

Nah.

VSP PICKS:

1. Cadel Evans
2. Ivan Basso
3. Sammy Sanchez
4. Janez Brajkovic
5. Vladimir Karpets
frank says:

Jun 4 2011 at 11:13 am

@Steampunk
Carbs are the most readily converted into energy. That energy is also readily converted into fat, meaning that if you burn the energy, there's no problem. Carbs at breakfast pose virtually no risk to bulking up, provided you don't go to sleep right away. Also, I really like the notion of having the probiotics in the yogurt. I think fruit right after a workout is a horrible idea, though, as you really don't want to put any sugars in your system that would stop the fat-burning process after a good ride. So sayeth I. What I love about your piece, though, is the Vitamin B. (In Housa, a tribe my VMH lived with in Africa for a few years, the word for "vitamin" is "bitamin". Which is funny to me.)
frank says:

Jun 4 2011 at 11:20 am

@Erik
I don't see anything in the database that would indicate that you've ever registered? Unless you've done it under a different email address, or user name? There's no need to register, though, in order to participate in the VSP. Not sure how to help - go ahead and chuck an email over to our contribute address with some more info (such as possible email addresses or user id's) and I'll see if I can track something down for you. Otherwise, you can just go ahead and re-register. Hope that's not too much of a hassle.
heath says:

Jun 4 2011 at 11:24 am

basso: "The result is not important, but how I feel is. I still have a month in order to prepare my legs."

"...i still have a month..."

and to think i was about to including him in my VSP.
frank says:

Jun 4 2011 at 11:29 am

This is a tough one. I'm figuring Gesink is just a little too green to do well at the Tour yet, aside from a possible Spotty Jumper. A week is just short enough to stay upright, and not long enough to guarantee the eventual cracking. Veino will come on strong, but he's going to try an upset at the Tour. Brajkovik will try to prove he's more than the cycling equivalent of Everclear. He will fail. Cuddles is prone to the same vexes that the Gesinkster is, except he's experienced enough to make sure he cracks at the Tour, not the Dauphine. Basso is the old sage, he's been there before, he knows what to do.

I'm also thinking Lars Boom is going to cut them down like a Big Oak Tree in the prologue, to quote Johnny Cash. (The word Boom in Dutch means "Tree".)

VSP PICKS:

1. Gesink
2. Veino
3. Break the bank
4. Basso
5. Cadelephant
fattist says:

Jun 4 2011 at 11:48 am

clentador will win, if he wants to. I'm not a fan. But he wins stage races at will.
Andrew says:

Jun 4 2011 at 12:40 pm

Total crap-shoot, big names looking to get the legs ready, but someone's gotta bring it to win this thing....

VSP PICKS:

1. Cuddles
2. Basso
3. Vino
4. Sammy Sanchez
5. Thomas
xyxax says:

Jun 4 2011 at 1:23 pm

Wow, an Everclear reference.

Well, I guess these things aren't going to pick themselves and currently visiting l'Hexagone is not helping a damn bit, so cut and paste like a ransom note:

VSP PICKS:

1. Cuddles
2. Left Me Gesink
3. Van den Broeck
4. Vino
5. Janez Addiction
seemunkee says:

Jun 4 2011 at 1:42 pm

VSP PICKS:

1. Cuddles
2. Gesink
3. Vino
4. J-Rod
5. Karpets