Vuillermoz wins Critérium du Dauphiné stage 2 from the breakaway

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Alexis Vuillermoz (TotalEnergies) claimed victory from the breakaway on stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné in a thrilling finale in Brives-Charensac.

The Frenchman was part of a five-rider move that survived over another day of hilly terrain and held off the peloton by the skin of their teeth.

Stage 1 winner Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) won the bunch sprint just five seconds down, but it was for sixth place and ultimately in vain as he lost the leader’s yellow jersey to Vuillermoz.

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As the breakaway quintet finally started to play cat and mouse in the final 500 metres after a day of flawless cooperation, Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ) went from range with 300 metres to go. Vuillermoz, a lightweight climber, had enough strength to drag him back and move clear to celebrate his first win in three years.

Anders Skaarseth (Uno-X) came through for second place, with Le Gac hanging on for the final podium spot. Kevin Vermaerke (Team DSM) and Anthony Delaplace (Arkea-Samsic) rounded out the top five before Van Aert led the bunch home ahead of Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers).

After a lumpy opening stage, the 169.8km stage trip from Saint-Péray to Brives-Charensac featured more hilly terrain, notably the category-2 Col de Mézilhac (11.6km at 4.1%) inside the final 60km. Once again, the pure sprinters were ridden out of contention, with Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange-Jayco) dropped and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) abandoning the race altogether.

The path was paved for a repeat of the battle between Van Aert and Hayter but they still had to catch the breakaway, and they made a mess of it. The escapees lost time on the climb and the subsequent plateau but held their own on the 10km descent, braved a storm on the final short categorised climb, and went all-in on the 9km run-in.

Trek-Segafredo lit it up on that climb, the Côte de Rohan (1.2km at 5.9%), and the gap fell to 30 seconds, but it then bounced up as the impetus drained behind. Jumbo-Visma’s riders asked why other teams were sitting back before taking responsibility on the run-in. They cut it down to 15 seconds by the final kilometre but by that point it was too little too late, and the breakaway had their day.

Vuillermoz, who collected 10 bonus seconds for the stage win, now leads the Dauphiné by three seconds over Skaarseth and four seconds over Le Gac. Van Aert drops to fourth at five seconds, with Vermaerke fifth at seven seconds, his three bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint lifting him above Hayter and into the white jersey as best young rider.

How it unfolded

There was more moderately hilly terrain on the agenda in what is the main flavour of this Dauphiné. The back-to-back category-3 climbs of the Côte de Désainges and Côte de Saint-Agrève signalled the first softening-up process inside the opening 65km, but the major test would be the cat-2 Col de Mézilhac (11.6km at 4.1%).

It topped out 60km from the line but was followed by a rolling plateau, a descent, and then more rolling terrain - including the cat-4 Côte de Rohan - on the run-in.

The flat opening 20km were unsettled but a breakaway finally formed when the road tilted uphill on an uncategorised climb, with six riders making the day’s escape: Xandres Vervloesem (Lotto-Soudal), Kevin Vermaerke (DSM), Anders Skaarseth (Uno-X), Anthony Delaplace (Arkea-Samsic), Alexis Vuillermoz (Total Energies), Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ).

The sextet built a lead of 4:30 by the pair of cat-3 climbs, with Jumbo-Visma setting the tempo in the peloton. Vervloesem claimed the maximum of two mountains points at the top of both climbs, by which point the break’s advantage had ducked below the four-minute mark.

The gap grew out again to 4:30 by the foot of the key climb of the Col de Mézilhac. Groenewegen’s BikeExchange-Jayco teammates were setting the tempo at the head of the peloton, controlling the breakaway but bracing themselves for the climb.

It wasn’t long before Jumbo-Visma and Ineos Grenadiers came through to take over and impose their own, higher, tempo on the climb. After a few kilometres, Groenewegen was dropped and his teammates were forced to chase in a 20-rider gruppetto. Another pure sprinter, Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) was dumped out of contention all together as he was forced to abandon.

Up front, Vervloesem was dropped from the breakaway before Vuillermoz took the points at the top of the Col de Mézilhac. Further down, Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) and James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) combined to keep the pace high and inflict the damage on Groenewegen and the rest. At the top, the peloton were just under four minutes in arrears, with Groenewegen one minute behind them.

On the rolling plateau, the peloton continued to make gains. After Vermaerke beat Le Gac and Skaarseth to the intermediate sprint, they hit the descent proper with 25km to go with a lead of 1:30, while Groenewegen had been definitively put to the sword at 4:20.

The 10km descent allowed the breakaway some hope, and they were able to keep the bunch at bay, hitting the flat with a lead of 1:10. The road, however, immediately kicked up and they started to bleed time, not least as Trek-Segafredo committed resources to the chase. The final official categorised climb, the Côte de Rohan (1.2km at 5.9%), kicked up with 10km to go, at which point the five leaders had 45 seconds in hand.

Trek upped their efforts on the climb, with Antwan Tolhoek doing the first turn before Kenny Elissonde went so hard he gapped the Jumbo-Visma line of riders over the top, where the gap was down to 30 seconds.

On the subsequent downhill section, however, it went the other way, and the escapees suddenly found themselves with 40 seconds as the peloton failed to mount a collective chase. Eventually, Jumbo-Visma picked it up after wondering why so many other teams were sitting back.

The breakaway entered the technical final kilometre with 17 seconds in hand. They had just enough time to play a little cat and mouse, but Le Gac called it off with an audacious move with 300m to go.

He gained a big gap but soon started to fade, while Vuillermoz set about closing it down. Skaarseth looked primed in the wheel but Vuillermoz was able to hold his speed all the way to the line.