Blazin’ Saddles: 10 Tour de France talking points from the Criterium du Dauphine

With Chris Froome off the boil, Alberto Contador more undercooked than sashimi and Richie Porte narrowly missing out what would have been a morale-boosting win, the Dauphine certainly left more questions than answers ahead of the Tour.

So, let’s try and grapple with some of the talking points and take stock after an unfancied Dane in blue upset the apple cart of the established order just three weeks ahead of the Tour’s Grand Depart in Dusseldorf.

Undoubtedly so. And yet, finishing fourth in his final race ahead of the Tour may prove the best preparation yet for the three-time champion. As Froome himself admitted, his season so far has been light on racing – clocking up just 19 race days ahead of the Dauphiné.

History tells us that when Froome wins the Dauphine, he wins the Tour; the last time he finished fourth, he came second in the Tour behind team-mate Bradley Wiggins – back in 2012.

Cynics could feasibly see Froome’s abject TT performance and mountain travails as a carefully orchestrated act to humanise a seemingly indomitable champion – Team Sky’s latest attempt, after the white jersey fandango, to sell the public a new product: a gimmicky rebranding exercise planned to see Froome enter the Tour as an underdog before winning over fans with his tenacity.

That’s probably a bit too far-fetched. Froome is clearly not in as good a nick at this point as in previous seasons. And after his exploits last year – plus the continued demands of fatherhood – who can blame him? There’s still time ahead of the Tour to fine tune his condition. While he won’t start as a shoo-in, it would still take a fool to bet against him.

Dropping off the podium on the final day, Froome told assembled media that his old team-mate Porte – despite missing out on the overall win by just 10 seconds – was the “strongest rider” and clear “favourite for the Tour”.

Mind games or an honest assessment from Froome? Perhaps a bit of both.

Having won the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Romandie this year, Porte’s certainly in the form of his life. Sure, he was found out by probing early attacks in stage 8 but, like the recent Giro d’Italia champion Tom Dumoulin, Porte didn’t panic, made a measured riposte, and was just bonus seconds away from winning his first Dauphine.

What’s more, Porte showed his time trialling ability by taking 37 seconds off Froome in stage 4 – practically the same margin he bested his rival by in the shorter Romandie time trial.

No, there’s no denying Porte’s form, nor his possession of the attributes required to win big. The Australian’s problem, however, remains twofold: his comparatively weak BMC team (Froome still has the likes of Geraint Thomas, Mikel Landa and Sergio Henao to draw on, remember) and his propensity to blow up at least once during three-week races.

Lest we forget: Porte has never finished on the podium of a Grand Tour. Making him a favourite, aged 32, is therefore quite baffling.

Probably. Time hasn’t been kind to the Spaniard on the roads of France, with Alberto Contador now without a podium finish in the Tour since the year he was stripped of his title, in 2010. He’s won both the Giro and the Vuelta in that time frame – but on both occasions, they were the central focus of his season.

In his first year at Trek-Segafredo, Contador has finished runner-up in no fewer than four week-long stage races – but despite the odd attacking flourish, Contador toiled last week. Found out against the clock, going up and going down the steep Mont du Chat, Contador looks the shadow of his former self. And in finishing 11th, he also brought the curtain down on a long run of top-ten finishes in stage races.

While the Spaniard is guaranteed to bring fireworks to the annual Tour party, it looks like he should target specific stages for an explosion, rather than fizzle out ignominiously in the GC battle. Just because Rafa Nadal has rolled back the years and won La Decima, that doesn’t mean Contador will win his own tenth (or would it be eighth?) Grand Tour.

A considerably larger one than it seemed earlier in the season. When Jakob Fuglsang was named by manager Alexander Vinokourov as Astana’s man for the Tour, eyebrows were raised. After all, the Dane has only ever once finished in the Tour top ten – back in 2013.

But here we are with the intriguing prospect of an energised, in-form and confident Fuglsang riding with more panache and gumption than his illustrious rivals. Before the Dauphine, Fuglsang had never triumphed on the WorldTour; he now has two stage wins and an overall victory. And if the way he went about his seizure of the yellow jersey was impressive individually, then Astana’s collective punch was even more notable.

Ruled out of the Giro, Fabio Aru looks to be returning to peak form and he dovetailed convincingly with his team-mate last week. “It’s been a lot of bad luck for our team this year,” Fuglsang said after his first stage scalp at La Motte Servolax – after he out-sprinted both Froome and Porte, with Aru in his wake, “but it’s finally started to be competitive, and really competitive, ahead of the Tour.”

Suddenly, an Astana two-pronged assault on the GC in the Tour looks like an intriguing – and realistic – prospect. Who needs Vincenzo Nibali?

After rising from eighth to third place in the short but sharp final stage on Sunday, Ireland’s Dan Martin was buzzing. Coming through what he described as “one of the hardest days I’ve ever had on the bike” with flying colours, Martin was rewarded for an aggressiveness he hopes will be emulated by more riders on the Tour.

"It was just an epic, aggressive day's racing. On every climb, I think an attack went in. I wish it was on television all day – that's what bike racing is all about. If it was televised from the start, then what an advert for cycling. I just wish everyone would race so aggressively at the Tour, because nobody attacks like that at the Tour."

Well, Martin will be pleased to hear that every stage of the Tour – and not merely the 115km queen stages packed with four huge climbs – will be shown live on Eurosport in their entirety. In theory, this should inject more urgency and encourage attacks from the outset.

But the Tour’s the Tour: you win it by riding conservatively and waiting for the right moment. TV scheduling, alas, won’t change that. Martin and Contador can attack to their hearts’ content – and hopefully they will do so, for the benefit of us fans – but it will only compromise their chances of a high finish.

If last week’s race were an Olympic diving competition then they’d be 10s all round for the likes of Estaban Chaves and Warren Barguil. Both riders continued their return from injury at the Dauphine but clearly lack sharpness and form – finishing 26 and 29 minutes down respectively.

Once seen as Team Subweb’s prized asset and most viable GC rider, Barguil has seen team-mate Dumoulin steal his crown since last year’s horror training crash and this year’s fractured pelvis; a stage win will be his best bet in the Tour, provided he even makes the selection.

Chaves, recovering from a knee injury that has sidelined him since February, will also ride the Tour with one eye on the Vuelta. The Dauphine proved that there are going to be no miracle recoveries for either of these supremely talented riders this summer in France.

Not many non-climbers can boast wins on both the Stelvio and Mont Ventoux on their palmares, so Belgian Thomas De Gendt deserves more respect than many other breakaway specialists of his ilk. After a barren run stretching back to 2013, De Gendt got his career back on track last year with stage wins in the Volta a Catalunya and the Tour de France – continuing that form with a trademark opening day blitz in the Dauphine during which he took practically every jersey and prize on offer.

His reward for winning stage one with such pizzazz was a four-day stint in yellow and all the trimmings, to boot. Even if one of his daily podium prizes seemed to go walkies…

Such is the experienced 30-year-old’s renewed zest for racing, though, it shouldn’t be too long before he picks up a replacement Credit Lyonnais lion. The way De Gendt is riding right now recalls the swashbuckling antics of retired breakaway king Jens Voigt. Sure, the Belgian is still 22 wins shy of his illustrious predecessor’s career-long tally – but he has 15 years in which to draw level…

Nacer Bouhanni, Bryan Coquard and Alexander Kristoff were all shown up by Arnaud Démare in stage 2, while all the sprinters’ teams botched the chase in stage 3 (won by Koen Bouwman). All the top fast-men then marked each other out in stage 5 to allow artistic and industrious rookie Phil Bauhaus in to snatch the biggest win of his career.

Judging by their performances, Kristoff won’t come anywhere near challenging Sagan, Greipel, Cavendish et al in July, while Démare looks the only Frenchman who could feasibly snare a maiden Tour stage win. Rumour has it that out-of-sorts(-and-contract) Coquard needed a win in last week to secure his place in Direct Energie’s team, so his inclusion isn’t even guaranteed. As for Bouhanni – there’s still time for him to punch someone or pick up an injury. We shouldn’t hold our breath.

With Thibaut Pinot having ridden the Giro and Barguil still on the road to recovery, all hopes will be pinned on the slender shoulders of Romain Bardet this July – especially with the host nation’s sprinters seemingly firing blanks.

Runner-up last year, Bardet showed glimpses of his climbing ability but was caught short on Mont du Chat in stage 5, a day after losing considerable time against the clock. That the Ag2R-La Mondiale rider could make up time en route to Alpe d’Huez on Saturday showed he has bouncebackability – and he should be in the reckoning come the Tour. But as a top five rider rather than a genuine candidate for yellow.

Arguably the biggest winner of the week was the man who didn’t push a single competitive pedal stroke. Licking his wounds after being denied the maglia rosa by Dumoulin, Nairo Quintana would have been given a boost seeing so many of his rivals struggle for form in France.

Froome’s not the force he was; Porte’s team and tactics are lacking; Contador cannot sustain his attacks; Aru is surely already riding in the red. We all know that Quintana traditionally rides his second Grand Tour of the season stronger than his first – and with Movistar team-mate Alejandro Valverde (a combative ninth) still clearly capable of shaking things up when the road heads uphill, even a heavily fatigued Quintana should be confident he can still take something from this season.

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