DISCUSSION Criterium du Dauphiné Stage 2 | Jonathan Milan's sprint domination; lack of breakaway ambitions and more...

Stage 2 of the Criterium du Dauphiné was a hilly one, especially at the beginning, which presaged a fierce battle to be in the breakaway of the day.

However, it was only one man going clear in the end: Paul Ourselin. The French rider went solo and fortified his KOM lead. Behind, the peloton was never too worried with the situation, letting him build a lead of up to 6 minutes.

In the second half of the stage, the bunch increased the pace and dangerously approached Ourselin still with plenty of kilometres to go. Then, three riders jumped from the peloton and joined the French in front, but their gap was never big enough to dream with a win.

Jonathan Milan was the main favourite for the day but significantly struggled during one of the climbs, even losing contact with the group. However, his teammates did a fantastic work to get him back in, and in the end the leadout was perfect and allowed him to easily win the bunch sprint and steal the yellow jersey from Tadej Pogacar in the process.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

Pretty simple day of racing. However, it was still an interesting leadout battle between UAE and Visma throughout the entire finale. Whilst we see friendly Pogacar and Vingegaard, some of their domestiques certainly don't get along when facing the most tense moments. But it's an interesting display of power, the two TDF teams facing off for dominance outside of the mountains.

In the end the victory from Jonathan Milan was expected and pretty comfortable. It was pretty nice seeing Van der Poel go for it in a flat sprint as well, with a nice result, another good indicator of his current good form.

Jonathan Milan was the man to beat today, and he fulfilled the expectations. Yesterday he was actually in the group coming behind Pogacar and company, but he was in a surprisingly bad position. Today his team did a perfect leadout and also a perfect job before the finish when he was dropped, helping him to come back.

You can tell he has not raced in quite some time, it is a bit surprising seeing him suffering on such climbs. I had some doubts about his ability to sprint today after those troubles, but he proved he barely has any competition when he is at his best.

Also, it is true that the field of sprinters at Dauphiné is relatively weak, as none of the tier 1 are here, so he just couldn’t miss out on this opportunity and he didn’t.

However, I doubt he will have any other opportunity to shine during this week – only two non-mountain or ITT stages remaining and they are much harder than today’s on paper. It should still be a nice preparation for the Tour, I think only Tim Merlier can consistently challenge him in flat sprints.

I was quite surprised with the breakaway formation, I was expecting a much bigger battle. There was a huge favourite for today, no sprinter is nowhere close to Milan’s level, and many teams don’t even have a proper sprinter, so they should try something different if they want to be protagonists and have some chances to win.

Also today’s stage was suitable for a big break and it would have been hard to control for Lidl-Trek. Instead, nobody followed Ourselin…the only brave rider of the day.

It has been two disappointing stages when it comes to the break, I hope tomorrow will be different and we can see much more ambition. 50% (or more) of the riders here only have the option of the break if they want to play some kind of role in the race, so I don’t understand why they aren’t targeting that.

Mathieu van der Poel had already warned before the stage that he wanted to contest the stage and that’s what he did, finishing in third. His positioning for the sprint was really good, but he just cannot beat Milan in that field. Tomorrow and Thursday might be two perfect opportunities for him – hilly stages that should eliminate all the pure sprinters and end up in a reduced bunch sprint.

Unsalted stage. A typical Grand Tour transition stage. Only one man in the breakaway for most of the day. Just as the television broadcast was starting, a few men appeared to counter-attack in the peloton... to show off their jerseys and sponsors.

Milan took off on a climb and the team brought him back to the peloton, so that he could do what he knows best... which is to put power into the cranks and win the stage.