On l'attendait et il est là, ce dernier week-end explosif et décisif du Critérium du Dauphiné avec trois jours en montagne. Le premier opus de cette triologie avait lieu ce vendredi 13 juin avec une 6e étape courte (126.7 km) mais difficile et une arrivée au sommet de la terrible montée de Combloux, lieu de l'exploit de Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) sur le Tour de France 2023. Si la course a été lancée tôt entre les favoris, avec du mouvement dès la Côte de Mont-Saxonnex à 45 km, tout s'est logiquement joué dans l'enchaînement final Côte de Domancy et Côte de la Cry... où Tadej Pogacar a tapé du poing sur la table et signé un réveil tonitruant, prenant une revanche écalatante sur ses rivaux ! Deuxième, Vingegaard est repoussé à plus d'une minute et Remco Evenepoel 5e à 1'50" ! Quel démonstration et quel réponse du Slovène dans le sillage d'une équipe UAE Team Emirates-XRG impressionnante. Il frappe un grand coup et fait logiquement coup double avec le Jaune.
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00:00How did you analyze the day and the time lost?
00:27Yeah, I was actually feeling pretty good until a few kilometers from the top.
00:33After the first kilometer I felt straight away that UAE was going all out to drop as many guys as possible.
00:40In the end I just tried to keep my pace.
00:44Kilometer by kilometer I was slowing down, so maybe not my best day on the bike or my best final climb ever.
00:52What's the reason behind that? We saw that extra footage today, that crash, you hit pretty hard.
00:57Do you think it's a little bit of that, a little bit of your still coming up to top form for the Tour de France?
01:02What does this mean now?
01:04Yeah, possibly. In the end a crash is never something good, but I think I don't want to blame my performance of today on a crash.
01:12It's possible, but in the end the heat conditions were for everybody as well.
01:19And like I said on the steep climb with 40k to go I was actually feeling really good.
01:24So yeah, I think up there I was not worried.
01:28But then with a few kilometers to go I started to feel that the legs were really getting empty.
01:33Maybe the heat and like you said maybe just still building towards the top form.
01:39So yeah, I think we'll have to analyze tonight and already put the focus on tomorrow because there's another big day coming up.
01:46Okay, easy to say, same old Pogacar, but what's your sense of how that measured up to what we've seen before from him and maybe what you've done in the past as well?
01:55Yeah, I mean it was amazing what he did today. I think putting more than a minute into Jonas and almost two minutes to myself and yeah, 1.30, 1.40 to all the other guys in front of me as well.
02:07It's just something, an outstanding performance, especially on the climb of 8.5k with a flat part in the middle or more flat part in the middle.
02:13So yeah, I think he has shown who is the best rider in the world once again.
02:18So just a big congrats to him and to his team for the performance they did.
02:23So yeah, I think tomorrow is going to be the same story. Just try to follow as long as possible and probably limit the time loss.
02:30Has this confirmed to you that it is the time trialing that's got to put you ahead?
02:35I mean, it's actually it's exactly the same as last year. I won the TT, I had a crash and the day after I dropped and lost the jersey.
02:44So, so far so good. I think it was not my best final, but just yeah, I have to stay calm and look forward.
02:53But I mean, I hope one day I will beat them as well in the climbs.
