Barcelona calling: Dauphiné team time trial offers dry run for Tour de France opener

Like the opening stage of the Tour, this Dauphiné team time trial will be run off according to what have come to be known as ‘Paris-Nice rules’ – that is, the time for each rider is taken individually rather than on the fourth (or fifth) rider across the line.

The traditional maxim for a team time trial was that a squad was only as strong as its weakest rider. In this twist on the discipline, the aim of the game is to provide as fast a lead-out as possible before unleashing the team leader(s) in the finale.

In Barcelona on July 4, the final climb up Montjuïc will see the yellow jersey show themselves for the first time at the Tour. Tuesday’s Dauphiné test is 28.4km – some 9km longer than the Tour opener – but the principle is quite similar.

There are two steady climbs, to Coutouvre after 8km and Montagny after 15.8km. A fast descent then brings teams to the foot of the short but sharp kick up to the finish line in Perreux.

Luke Plapp and his Jayco-AlUla squad are among the contenders for victory, and he outlined the demands of the course when speaking to CyclingPro.net.

“There are two climbs of seven or eight minutes, with a tricky descent in the middle and then a really, really fast 10-minute finish towards the final climb,” Plapp said. “You try to get your big guys over the climbs so they can really support you in the last 10 minutes, and then that final climb will just be a sprint with me and Bling [Michael Matthews], hopefully." 

“If we can get as many guys as possible over the climbs, then it would pay off for the long fast part into the last bit.”

The team time trial seemed to inform the approach of the GC contenders on Monday’s mammoth 234km run to Le Puy-en-Velay. Although the rugged terrain lent itself to attacks in the finale, the Dauphiné favourites were content to let the day’s spoils fall to the early break, with Anton Charmig (Uno-X Mobility) claiming the honours. 

Men like Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) rolled home together ahead of the first major GC rendezvous on Tuesday.

“I hope we can survive and save as much energy as possible for tomorrow,” Ayuso had explained to FloBikes before the start. “Tomorrow will be an important day, not only for this race but also for the Tour to keep on improving in that discipline. I think we’re confident we can do a really good stage tomorrow.”

Ayuso and his Lidl-Trek squad performed well in the discipline at Paris-Nice in March, when their effort in Pouilly-sur-Loire was enough to put the Spaniard into the yellow jersey, though they were denied stage victory by Ineos.

“This time I hope we are two seconds in front instead of two seconds behind,” Ayuso smiled. “It’s going to be tough because it’s a really hard course so it will be tricky to pace it, but I think we have a really good team and we’re going to try it.”

Ayuso is joined in the Lidl-Trek squad by a number of riders likely to join him at the Tour in July, including Mattias Skjelmose and Quinn Simmons. Seixas is also accompanied by much of his supporting cast for July, though he lost Matthew Riccitello to illness on the opening day.

“It’s a nice team time trial,” Seixas said. “We’ve lost Matthew, but we have a very strong team and it’s very solid and we’ll try to do the best result possible.”

Whatever the outcome, the stage will provide a useful test ahead of the Barcelona team time trial, though Plapp explained that more specific work will be required before July 4.

“A lot of our team have got a history of doing TTT, so we don’t do a whole of preparation, although but we did a recon before the race,” Plapp said. “But before the Tour, we’ll do a recon once we know the team. It’s something we’re excited for, we can do it well. We don’t have big superstars, but I think in terms of an overall team and how strong it is, we can all complement each other very well.”

The rules change but the fundamentals of the collective effort stay the same.