Critérium du Dauphiné - Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes stage 2 LIVE - Peloton lets 10 riders go clear after hour-long fight

It was a tough return to racing for Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) yesterday after the Belgian star crashed in training while out on his TT bike...

>>> 'I wasn't feeling great' - pre-race training crash and lack of form sees tough return for Wout van Aert at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Almeida and co have ridden the descent of the Col de la Croix de Toutes Aures very well and have rejoined the peloton again. The race is now split into the 10 man break and the peloton, who are 5'45" further back on the course.

The gap between the break and peloton has come down slightly to 5'10". The peloton do need to be careful as Clement Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ United) is sat at 5'49" in GC.

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Now, if tech is your thing then you will be all over this feature done by our tech team. Some of the biggest brands in the sport are rolling out new models left, right and centre at the moment with several being revealed at this race!

>>> More unreleased bikes than ever before in tech rehearsal for the Tour de France – Mega Dauphiné tech gallery

KOM (Col de la Croix de Toutes Aures)

1. Thomas (COF) 2pts
2. Diaz (CJR) 1pt

Thomas is now on 7 points in the KOM classification. He is 5th in the standings and needed another 7 points to draw level with Baudin. The next climb has a max of 5 points available.

The chase group joins the leaders as they go over the top of the Col de la Croix de Toutes Aures making it a lead group of 10 riders.

NOw just 10" splitting the groups of the Col de la Croix de Toutes Aures.

The chasing group are finally starting to close the gap to the leaders with it now dropping to 20".

The leaders start the Col de la Croix de Toutes Aures.

The peloton have well and truly let the riders up the road go. 10 riders are clear split in half with 30" splitting the two groups of five. The peloton is now at 5'40".

200km to go

Break:

Anton Charmig (UXM)
Alex Diaz (CJR)
Benjamin Thomas (COF)
Nadav Raisburg (NSN)
Henri-François Renard-Haquin (TPP)

Chase +30"

Baptiste Veistroffer (LOI)
Jordan Jegat (TEN)
Raul Garcia Pierna (MOV)
Clement Braz Afonso (GFC)
Vlad Van Mechelen (TBV)

Peloton +5'40"

The chasing group of five riders are still at around 30" from the five man leading group after the first climb.

They have some undulating terrain to tackle and then it is onto the second climb, the 2.8km Col de la Croix de Toutes Aures with an average of 6.1%. It is actually longer than that, the KOM line isn't at the top, for some reason.

KOM (Col de Chatain)

1. Thomas (COF) 5pts
2. Charmig (UXM) 3pts
3. Raisberg (NSN) 2pts
4. Renard-Haquin (TPP) 1pt

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) continues to struggle through the early stages of the race and is out of the back of the peloton again.

Counter attack

Raul Garcia Pierna (MOV)
Clement Braz Afonso (GFC)
Vlad Van Mechelen (TBV)

They quickly bridge to Jegat who has also caught Veistroffer. They are 30" back on the leaders with the peloton sitting up and are now at 2'00".

210km to go

Break:

Anton Charmig (UXM)
Alex Diaz (CJR)
Benjamin Thomas (COF)
Nadav Raisburg (NSN)
Henri-François Renard-Haquin (TPP)

Chase +10"

Baptiste Veistroffer (LOI)

Chase +30"

Jordan Jegat (TEN)

Peloton +50"

Veistroffer has been distanced by the break. The big Frenchman has a large frame to haul over these mountains and can't quite keep the pace for the moment.

Attack

Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies)

The Frenchman who finished 10th at last year's Tour de France lost a huge amount of time yesterday thanks to a badly timed puncture. But now he can go for stages and he is starting here with this move. He is currently solo at 45" from the leaders.

Meanwhile, riders are being dropped from the peloton.

Phil Bauhaus (TBV)
Roel van Sintmaartensdijk (LOI)
Matevž Govekar (TBV)

Among others. While Edoardo Affini (TVL) has a mechanical.

The chase group has been caught as they head onto the first climb of the day, the 7.9km Col de Chatain which has an average gradient of 5.7%.

The break are still pushing hard and have extended their gap on the chasers to 45" and 1'02" to the peloton.

Counter attack

Michael Matthews (JAY)
Martin Svrček (SOQ)
Callum Thornley (RBH)
Gal Glivar (APT)
Georffrey Bouchard (TEN)
Matteo Trentin (TUD)

They are at 40" from the leaders with the peloton a further 15" behind them.

The counter attacks continue but as they fail the pace stalls each time and this has allowed the leading six riders to extend their gap to 35" on the bunch.

More attacks come from the peloton as the fight to form the break is, once again, fierce.

The most dangerous riders in GC are Charmig, Thomas and Diaz all on 15'04" behind Baudin.

Attack

Anton Charmig (UXM)
Alex Diaz (CJR)
Benjamin Thomas (COF)
Baptiste Veistroffer (LOI)
Nadav Raisburg (NSN)
Henri-François Renard-Haquin (TPP)

The six riders go clear and get a small gap of 15" on the peloton.

The first attacks come with six riders going clear from the flag drop but they are quickly brough back. Four riders launch over the top.

234.3km to go

Racing begins on the second stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with 3685 metres of elevation gain ahead of the riders.

Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) made the time cut yesterday by just NINE seconds.

There were four DNFs yesterday:

Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon-CMA CGM)
Brady Gilmore (NSN)
Rotem Tene (NSN)
Juan Martinez (Picnic-PostNL)

And one rider over the time limit:

Florian Kajamini (XDS-Astana)

Baudin may own all the jerseys, but he can only wear one. He is in yellow. In the white best young riders jersey it is Leo Bisiaux (Decathlon-CMA CGM), in the blue and white polka dot KOM jersey it is Sergio Samitier (Cofidis), and in the green points jersey it is second place Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech) who was very impressive in yesterday's finale.

Godon thinks that he has a good chance in today's stage and describes the day as a Milan-San Remo in Grenoble. Will the French champion make it two French wins in a row? His form this year would suggest it is definitely possible with seven victories across the season so far as well as multiple top placings.

Neutral start

The riders have rolled out and are now in the neutral zone. It is an extremely long 11.5km today! Making the stage 245.8km when you add the neutral.

The lack of bonus seconds meant that Onley could give his all in the final kilometres to make sure they kept the gap without worrying that rivals in the group would take the bonuses on the line. They are all at 32" from Baudin, aside from Bruno Armirail (Visma-Lease a Bike) who is at 34".

The other GC riders are all at 44" with the biggest losers on the day being Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike) losing 1'04", Carlos Rodríguez (Netcompany-Ineos) losing 1'46" and winner in 2020 Dani Martínez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) who lost 2'53". Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) also lost time on his birthday after a very poorly timed puncture meant he lost 12'44".

The GC riders were a bit split up in the end as well with the likes of Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike), Kevin Vauquelin (Netcompany-Ineos) and Oscar Onley (Netcompany-Ineos) being part of a 10 man group that gained 12" on all the other major GC rivals.

After the stage, Baudin was over the moon. "I cannot describe the feeling right now. I don't think I realise it yet; it's just amazing to win here and with my family here. One hour from home, it's just crazy," said Baudin.

"I hope I can carry this confidence and shape into the Tour de France in July. Of course, I'll want to defend the jersey as long as possible. It's not going to be easy tomorrow with this super long stage, but a yellow jersey you have to defend it, so we're going to do everything."

Before we launch further into the stage today, shall we have a look back at the fantastic racing of stage one? And what a stage it was for Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) who took the stage and all four jerseys in the process. A dream moment for the rider who's hometown was just about an hour from yesterday's finish.

>>> Critérium du Dauphiné: Frenchman Alex Baudin survives solo from early breakaway for biggest win of his career and yellow jersey on stage 1

The neutralised start is in about 10 minutes for the riders. They have completed sign on and team presentations with the usual interviews and will be beginning to go to the start in Saint-Martin-Le-Vinoux.

Today's stage is the longest of the race by about 30km with the riders taking on a massive 234.3km over very lumpy terrain. If on top form, we would expect to see riders like Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Dorian Godon (Netcompany-Ineos) to be fighting for the win, but where are their legs at as they build up for the Tour de France?

Bonjour and welcome to live updates of the second stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, a race formally known as the Critérium du Dauphiné.