Critérium du Dauphiné - Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes stage 1 LIVE: A group of 10 go clear after brutal hour

The gap expands to almost 2'00" as the peloton looks to finally be happy with the break and have decided to let the group go clear.

Van Aert and Riccitello rejoin the peloton along with Almeida as Bennett and Raisberg are chasing to try and get to the breakaway.

The pace is high as the race enters the mountains. Is looks like Almeida may get back in as Seixas confirmed this morning that Riccitello is ill and thinks the young American has food poisoning.

Dropped

João Almeida (UAD)
Wout Van Aert (TVL)
Matthew Riccitello (DCT)

Three big name riders amongst the riders losing touch.

Multiple riders are sitting up from the break with seven riders left out front with 30" of a gap.

Onto the Col de l'Arzelier they go but the peloton has destroyed the gap with just 35" splitting them now,

The riders are about the start the first categorised climb of the day, the cat 2 climb of the Col de l'Arzelier which is 8.6km long with an average of 5.7%.

Seixas' Decathlon-CMA CGM take over the pacing in the peloton and have brought the gap down to 50".

120km to go

The peloton are still around a minute back on the 10 man break who are working well. The average speed after about 40 minutes of racing is at 37.5kph.

The continues to grow to 55" between the break and the peloton.

Intermediate sprint (Monestier-de-Clermont)

1. Raisberg (NSN) 10pts
2. Reinderink (SOQ) 6pts
3. Zimmermann (LOI) 4pts

More riders bridge across including a dangerous man for the GC:

Alex Baudin (EFE)
Sergio Samitier (COF)
Raul Garcia Pierna (MOV)

The gap grows to 40" now. Baudin 9th in both Paris-Nice and Itzulia Basque Country as well as 6th at La Fleche Wallonne and 3rd at the GP Miguel Indurain.

The gap expands to 20".

The riders are about to reach in the intermediate sprint in Monestier-de-Clermont where 10, 6 and 4 points are available for the first 3 riders across the line.

The leaders have been joined:

Pepijn Reinderink (SOQ)
Georg Zimmermann (LOI)}
Alex Diaz (CJR)
Nadav Raisberg (NSN)

Making it 7 riders out front by 10".

Attack

Clement Braz Afonso (GFC)
Matteo Vercher (TEN)
Alastair MacKeller (EFE)

They have 10" on the bunch.

The peloton drags the breakaway back and the battle begins all over again.

Lennard Kämna (LTK) joins the leaders after he crosses the gap along with a TotalEnergies rider who didn't quite make it and is back in the peloton again.

Dropped

Riders are already losing contact with Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché) and Rotem Tene (NSN) both being distanced early on.

Leaders:

Georg Steinhauser (EFE)
Benjamin Thomas (COF)
Raul Garcia Pierna (MOV)
Vlad Van Mechelen (TBV)
George Bennett (NSN)
Clement Braz Afonso (GFC)
Maxime Decomble (GFC)

Counter attack

A new move of six riders bridge the gap to Thomas out front making an seven man group.

Thomas isn't pulling out much of a gap and is just sitting at 10" off the front of the peloton.

Attack

Benjamin Thomas (COF)

The Frenchman goes solo out front of the peloton.

Attack

Benjamin Thomas (COF)
Rudy Molard (GFC)
Kevin Geniets (GFC)
Mathis Le Berre (TEN)
Pepijn Reinderink (SOQ)}
Max Walker (EFE)

But it has been brought back very quickly.

Four riders go on the attack with two chasing. They quickly get 15" on the peloton.

The riders have 3160 metres of elevation gain on the menu today.

146.2km to go!

Racing begins a few minutes early as riders pass through KM0 and the flag is waved for racing to begin.

Seixas comes into the race as the stand out favourite after dominating in Itzulia Basque Country and La Fleche Wallonne as well as finishing second to Pogačar at Strade Bianche and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

Today's neutral is 5.8km long.

Seixas wishes that Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) were racing this week, but with Pogačar going to the Tour de Suisse and Vingegaard resting after winning the Giro d'Italia, Seixas is a stand-alone favourite but with plenty of talent to go up against him.

>>> 'I would have liked them to be there' – Paul Seixas disappointed by absence of Pogačar and Vingegaard at Dauphiné, his Tour de France 'rehearsal'

Neutral start

The riders roll out of Vizille in the neutralised zone.

The neutralised start is in about five minutes. Riders are all signed on and have been presented to the crowd in Vizille and are ready to roll out.

64 out of the 154 riders starting the race are eligible for the white jersey of best young riders. That is 41% of the peloton! With Seixas, Del Toro, Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), Kevin Vauquelin (Netcompany-Ineos) and more all going for yellow, but also white!

Bonjour et bienvenue to Cyclingnews live updates of stage 1 at the newly named Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, formally the Critérium du Dauphiné.

The opening stage is a classic Dauphiné stage with several climbs and a potential for a reduced sprint at the end. However, with riders like Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) and Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in the race, anything can happen!