The fisherman failed.
Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) finished second today in a two-man sprint in stage 6 of the Critérium du Dauphiné.
He comes from a fishing family and while he was patient and crafty, he still couldn’t beat Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty).
The two adversaries were part of a 14 rider break that gradually broke apart as the hilly course wore the escapees down. On the penultimate climb of the Col des Aravis, it was just Burgaudeau, Zimmerman and Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers).
Zimmerman attacked on the final climb, the Côte de Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe, but the Frenchman managed to fight his way back to the wheel. He then launched his own bid for glory with 500 meters to go but mis-timed his acceleration.
That was sad moment for Burgaudeau, who only has one WorldTour victory to his name, a stage in Paris-Nice. The win was right there for the taking, so very close, but he was perhaps over-eager and Zimmerman came around for the big win.
It was a bitter blow for Burgaudeau who, until the final hundred meters, had ridden a perfect race. He’d managed to survive the war of attrition as one by one, riders in the break fell off the back. What a perfect day for Burgaudeau, and his under-performing TotalEnergies team, if he could summon one last burst of energy. Imagine the champagne and happiness around the team dinner table.
Well, all was not lost. The consolation prize? He now leads the mountains classification and gets to wear the blue polka dot jersey. That’s fishing — sometimes you catch a big one and sometimes you get skunked.
In the GC battle, it was a stalemate all the way up the mountain. Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo Visma) paced his captain and race leader Jonas Vingegaard. It appeared for a moment that UAE and Adam Yates were ready to spring an attack but nothing happened. Perhaps Saturday’s fearsome threesome– the Col de la Madeleine, Col du Mollard and Col de la Croix de Fer put a damper on things. Save the legs for when you you can make a difference.
Vingegaard leads Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroën) by 1:10, with Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) third at 1:23 but will stay vigilant in the high mountains.
Benute now leading Jonas
5k 36 secs to chasers, pel at 1:30
UAE in front with Majic and Yates
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