Critérium du Dauphiné: Van Moer wins opening stage from the breakaway

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The 2021 Critérium du Dauphiné got underway with a breakaway success, with Brent Van Moer (Lotto Soudal) soloing into Issoire ahead of a frustrated peloton.

The Belgian was part of a four-man escape on the opening stage of the eight-day race, and he attacked them on the pair of climbs on the final lap of the Issoire finishing circuit.

At that point, with 16km remaining, the peloton was 1:30 in arrears but, despite efforts from Team BikeExchange and AG2R Citroën, they failed to mount a decent chase on the largely downhill run-in. 

Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) led the bunch home for second place, 25 seconds behind Van Moer, with AG2R’s Clément Venturini rounding out the podium.

The victory was the first of Van Moer’s career, and it was also a tale of redemption. Not only did he crash out of last year’s Dauphiné after being in the breakaway on the opening day, but more recently he was solo in the finale of the Ronde Van Limburg and was ‘robbed’ when he was sent the wrong way by a race marshal.

“Last week I was really disappointed – I did a great solo but had some bad luck. Today I wanted to show I can finish it off, and I’m really happy to do it here among all the big names.” 

Van Moer’s plan was to infiltrate the day’s breakaway in search of points in the mountains classification, and duly mopped up as the race crested an early category-4 climb before taking on three laps of a 37km circuit that featured the category 3 Côte du Chateau du Buron and cat-4 Col de la Croix des Gardes in quick succession.

He leads that classification, but he’ll instead be wearing the yellow jersey as overall leader of the Dauphiné.

“The plan was to be in the break and hope I had some good names with me, then I took all the points for the mountains jersey, then in the end I felt really good and went alone,” Van Moer said. 

“I don’t have such good memories of the Dauphiné but now I’m happy I’m here. It’s unbelievable to take my first professional victory in this big race.”

It was a day when most of the pre-race favourites finished safely and calmly in the bunch, but Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) suffered a mechanical problem ahead of the final climbs and trailed in more than four minutes down.

How it unfolded

The opening stage of the 2021 Dauphiné set out from Issoire and would wind up there 182km later, with an initial loop of 70km before the race returned for three laps of the finishing circuit, where the pair of climbs topped out 12km from the line.

The breakaway went after a few kilometres, with Van Moer joined by Ian Garrison (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Patrick Gamper (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Cyril Gautier (B&B Hotels).

They carved out an advantage of 4:30 on the opening section, with Van Moer signalling his intentions by being first to the top of the category 4 Côte de Bergonne, which preceded the entry to the finishing circuit.

The first lap of the circuit saw the gap stabilize at five minutes, but the break went down to three as Garrison was dropped on the cat. 3 Côte du château du Buron and further distanced on the cat. 4 Col de la Croix des Gardes. Van Moer took maximum points at the top of both climbs.

At the end of the first lap, with 74km to go, the three remaining escapees crossed the line with a lead of just under five minutes over the peloton. That doubled up as an intermediate sprint, where Gamper took the points ahead of Gautier and Van Moer.

On the second lap, the pace was raised in the bunch, with Bahrain Victorious, UAE Team Emirates, and EF-Nippo among the teams leading the chase. By the time Van Moer had added to his collection of mountains points, the breakaway trio reached Issoire again to take the bell with their lead down to 3:15.

With 37km remaining, it was still advantage peloton, but they struggled to gain ground, despite further contributions from Ineos Grenadiers, Trek-Segafredo, and Bora-Hansgrohe. 

By the foot of the climbs, the gap was 90 seconds, and Van Moer immediately went on the charge. Gautier and Gamper faded back towards the bunch but the Belgian powered impressively uphill to crest both climbs solo and give himself a fighting chance. His lead was down to just a minute, with 12km to go, but much of that was downhill, enabling him to believe.

The peloton, by contrast, was disorganized. Sean Bennett (Qhubeka Assos), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), and Felix Gall (Team DSM) all launched speculative attacks on the climbs but went nowhere. On the run-in, there was no sustained collaboration in the chase. In the end, BikeExchange, working for Kaden Groves, appeared most desperate, before AG2R came to the fore closer to home.

But Van Moer was soon into the home straight, with enough of a lead to sit up, celebrate, and savour the moment.