It was only 10 days ago that Simon Yates finished his career masterpiece, winning the Giro d’Italia on the slopes of the Colle delle Finestre where his worst day as a professional cyclist had taken place in 2018 (lost 32 minutes while leading the race overall). It was without a doubt a great moment and a fantastic ending to a strong Giro.
But some fans in various groups (I see you reddit but more facebook) criticized it. After all none of the top stage racing talents in the sport were there. Defending Giro and Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar? Resting after racing through the entire classics seasons before returning to action at the Criterium du Dauphine this week. 2 time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard? In addition to being a member of Yates Visma-Lease a Bike team, Vingegaard skipped the Giro again, as always, to focus on the Tour. He’s in action at the Dauphine this week. Olympic Champion and Tour de France podium finisher Remco Evenepoel? Also skipping the Giro and also at the Dauphine.
Despite the absences (they go further but a large part of that is Primoz Roglic and Juan Ayuso crashing out), the race was still the Giro. And there are no fluke winners at the Giro. It may not have the depth of the Tour de France at the startline, but it’s still a race one has to train for specifically (the Vuelta, cycling’s 3rd Grand Tour takes on a different complexion as last chance saloon in the Spanish heat at the end of the year).
This year’s Giro was stocked full of Grand Tour stars. It had 4 former winners of the race (Richard Carapaz, Egan Bernal, Primoz Roglic and Jai Hindley). Add Roglic’s 4 Vuelta wins and Yates own Vuelta win from 2018 and this was as stocked a race as you’ll find even though post-crash injury Egan Bernal is not the same rider he was when he won the 2019 Tour de France and 2021 Giro.
Still, it’s the Giro and the race itself confers a certain status. As opposed to the weeklong spectacle unfolding in France right now at the Criterium du Dauphine.
The Dauphine has a long history as a Tour de France prep race especially when it was known as the Dauphine Libere. But it was also known as the race you didn’t really want to win if you wanted to win the Tour de France that year. It was long a training race while the nearby (both physically and on the calendar) Tour de Suisse was the one riders really wanted to win.
This started to change during Lance Armstrong’s era. Even though he won it, he often went to Switzerland instead and he got mugged (cycling speak for crushed by a relative outsider and his team) in memorable ways at the Dauphine a few times (2004 when Spanish climber Iban Mayo smashed him in a mountain time trial on Mont Ventoux comes to mind).
Then we got the era of Contador and Team Sky where Alberto Contador was there to attempt to run Team Sky ragged and Team Sky was there to win (and win every race under any circumstance). Suddenly, the Dauphine took on more importance. And notably, since Andrew Talansky surprisingly won in 2014 (taking advantage of crashes and a staring match among the top guys), every winner except Jakob Fuglsang has a Grand Tour podium to his name (Fuglsang has a Tour de France top 10 to go with his 2 Dauphine wins and 3 additional Grand Tour top 20s).
And now we have a completely different era. The riders make the race? While if that is the case, the Dauphine this year is the second biggest race of the year behind the Tour. Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel are here along with most of their top domestiques (each has one resting after the Giro while each also has one trying to win in Switzerland next week). And all of them are racing to win. No Vincenzo Nibali style Dauphine racing here (Nibali for all his panache and his incredible record overall clearly never cared to win the Dauphine).
Vingegaard attacked on the flats in the finale of stage 1, putting Pogacar in yellow. Evenepoel closed the gap himself instead of having his team do it as would be normal. Classics superstar Matthew van der Poel was also there racing for the win (and was in the breakaway trying to win stage 3). For a race that nobody really cared to win for 50 years, it’s plenty prestigious now. The riders have made the race.
Still, nothing can elevate the Dauphine above the other two Grand Tours. Nor is the Dauphine ever going to be more important that the Monuments or Paris-Nice. Sure it’s above Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour de Suisse in the pecking order now (awesome Tirreno-Adriatico trophy notwithstanding).
Despite that, it’s clear the Dauphine is appointment viewing this season. And maybe annually over the next 3-5 years as the true superstars actually try and win it. If nothing else it’s a welcome change in a spot on the calendar that would otherwise be boring considering it follows the Giro so closely. So yes the riders have made the race. But to move it up further in prestige, that’ll take another 2 generations and preferably no Andrew Talansky or Iban Mayo style fluke winners during the interim period in 5-7 years.