No matter what happens in the remainder of the men’s pro road season, the most significant moment of the year will have been a catastrophic crash during the Tour of the Basque Country that saw Remco Evenepoel, Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard carted away with a variety of injuries. Roglic suffered serious road rash, Evenepoel broke a collarbone, and Vingegaard broke a collarbone, a number of ribs, and suffered a punctured lung.
With each of them their team’s best hope for a podium finish at the Tour de France, the mad scramble back to health brought Roglic and Evenepoel to the Critérium du Dauphiné to find out exactly where they are with less than a month to the Grand Depart.
Here’s what we learned.
- Roglič and Evenepoel both flattering to deceive? The Dauphiné’s eight stages were a bit of a slow burn for the big names, with Evenepoel finally flexing some muscle in the Stage 4 Time Trial, a performance that hinted at the Belgian’s burgeoning form. Roglič showed his veteran’s wiles though winning on the steeps of Stages 6 and 7 to cement the yellow jersey, though he cracked on Stage 8 and almost ceded the top step of the podium to the American, Matteo Jorgensen.
- Matteo Jorgensen on his way to the elite. As a Jumbo-Lease-a-Bike rider, Jorgensen flies under the radar a bit. Vingegaard and Wout van Aert tend to take up all the headlines, but at 24, Jorgensen is quietly striding toward the very top of the sport. This year alone he’s won Paris-Nice, Dwars door Vlaanderen, and now booked second place at the Dauphiné. With this team unsure how competitive Vingegaard will be next month, we might just be seeing the ascent of the young American.
- Predictable crashes have riders questioning organizers’ commitment to safety. Stage 5 of this Dauphiné was suspended after a massive crash in slick, rainy conditions took out a significant portion of the peloton, with many teams losing multiple riders in the aftermath. This follows on from some sketchy course decisions at the Giro, that had riders wondering if anyone was interested in their safety at all. Is it just a coincidence that so many big crashes have disrupted the racing this season, or are organizers pushing the limits to create drama at the riders’ expense? The answer is likely, yes to both.
Next up for both the men and the women, we have the Tour de Suisse and then the Giro Donne, which is, sadly, overlapping with the men’s Tour.
Real bummer for Vingegaard. I guess it will be a coin flip as to whether he can start Le Tour.