DISCUSSION Criterium du Dauphiné Stage 7 | Were Visma's tactics wrong? Was Jonas Vingegaard the morale winner of the day?
CyclingSunday, 15 June 2025 at 09:48
The penultimate stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné was the queen stage with no doubt, featuring three infernal HC climbs that were expected to create big gaps and push every rider to the limit.
The beginning of the stage was the Col de la Madeleine, a mythical climb and a 1-hour long effort. So many riders tried to get into the breakaway of the day, including Visma riders such as Matteo Jorgenson or Sepp Kuss.
The break never had a gap bigger than 2 minutes, due to UAE’s work back in peloton. During the final kilometres of the Col de la Croix de Fer, Matteo Jorgenson imposed a hellish pace in the bunch that only 10 riders could stand, catching the breakaway in the process.
In the final climb, Tadej Pogacar launched one of his characteristic thermonuclear attacks and went solo, obtaining his third win at this edition of the Dauphiné and increasing his lead over his rivals. Jonas Vingegaard limited the losses, giving up just 14 seconds, while Remco Evenepoel lost 2:39.
Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.
Ivan Silva (CiclismoAtual)
Well, the strongest rider in the world right now is clear for everyone. It does look like the gap between Pogacar and Vingegaard is not as big as it was last year though, and with some time until the Tour, I still have some hope to see the best Vingegaard version on the high mountains.
A word also for Florian Lipowitz, who put on a hell of a show being the only one even near the top 2 guys. On the other side, Remco Evenepoel seems to be far behind on the high mountains, and this is a red sign for him. He looks to be too far behind for someone who one day hopes to win the Tour.
Víctor LF (CiclismoAlDía)
Another day at the office for Tadej Pogacar. There's not much to say about him, just that he's the best cyclist in the world and he proves it every time he gets on a bike.
Jonas Vingegaard was much better than yesterday, so bravo to him. Florian Lipowitz has confirmed his high level and is going to stand on the podium of a race of the stature of the Critérium du Dauphiné. Tobias Halland Johannessen has shined and seems to be starting to confirm 4 years after winning the Tour du Porvenir.
On the negative side, Remco Evenepoel has also confirmed, but in his case what he has confirmed is that he is light years ahead of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. And Enric Mas and Carlos Rodriguez are not leaving good feelings for the Tour de France. They have arrived again with a group of riders who should be well below them and I'm starting to wonder if they will be the best riders of their respective teams in the Tour.
Rúben Silva (CyclingUpToDate)
Not much to say of today actually. Yesterday we saw the four strongest riders take over the top positions (with Jorgenson in the middle) and today they have finished in the same order. The racing is so tough that the riders are doing the final climbs in time-trial mode almost, no tactics, all legs.
There was nothing that could be done with Pogacar. Visma tried, having Jorgenson attack in both the climbs before the final one, but making the difference was impossible. They tried going for the stage win too with Sepp Kuss, but UAE - although not really having a block as strong as Visma's - could still control the race enough so that Pogacar could do his thing.
The high mountains still see him a level above, so I expect nothing different tomorrow, and I sense we're looking at what we may see at the Tour de France in almost the exact same way.
Pascal Michiels (RadsportAktuell)
Pogacar won in brilliant fashion, but to then say in the interview that it’s all still just preparation for the Tour and that he never went into the red — I’m not so sure. Maybe his power meter didn’t hit the red zone, but his face clearly did.
He was still sweating heavily. So in terms of morale heading toward the Tour, the real winner today might be Vingegaard. He bounced back from yesterday by managing to hold the same gap this time.
Florian Lipowitz was brave once again. When you look at how the younger generation rides, and then at the German, you can only conclude they all want to ride like Pogacar — if they have the legs. Full gas forward and not too much calculating. That’s cycling at its best.
Lipowitz finishing between Evenepoel and Vingegaard, possibly even ending up on the podium — it’s still incredibly impressive. It’s the kind of success German cycling really needs. And we’re witnessing it.
Carlos Silva (CiclismoAtual)
Visma and Vingegaard will have to work on their heads more than their physique. Pogacar's third win in the Dauphiné. But once again I'm a critic of the Dutch team. Who drew up the plan and put it on the road? When I saw Kuss on the day's break, I looked at the penultimate climb and thought: They're going to try something there.
UAE had lost three men. But on the penultimate climb nothing much happened and Visma just tried to scare Pogacar by burning Jorgenson with very weak fireworks. On the last climb, the expected happened. And today Vingegaard couldn't complain about his explosive arrival. He was on his favourite terrain and gave in.
Lipowitz went from less to more, to less again. Remco didn't just lose 1.5kg in weight. He lost morale. He lost his legs. He lost his team. And to be honest, I think Soudal will lose him at the end of the season.
A note to Movistar. What were you working towards before the last ascent? Enric Mas is in Spain, not the Dauphiné. He never was. Romain Bardet. He's trying, he wants to win, he wanted to hang up his bike and say, mission accomplished. But it won't be easy.
Pogacar is going to add one more colour to his tally. And it gives me tremendous pleasure to watch this boy ride. He's entertaining, incisive and surgical. Everyone knows that. They just don't have the legs for him. Legs and instinct.
Félix Serna (CyclingUpToDate)
The queen stage promised action and riders delivered. Visma was particularly active at the beginning of the stage, fighting to get some of their riders in the break. After an unsuccessful attempt with Jorgenson, they managed to send Kuss down the road to act as a potential satellite rider. And they shattered the race in Col de la Croix de Fer when Jorgenson set a very hard pace.
All this happening in the first half of the queen stage was very entertaining… too bad we couldn’t watch a single minute of the action. It is impossible to understand why ASO doesn’t want to provide full stage coverage, especially of mountain stages like today’s. Even if not full coverage in every stage, at least in the important mountain days in which we all know that big action is likely to happen from the beginning.
Not much to say about Pogacar, he just did what he does best, and nobody can match his level. He proved it yesterday and didn’t hesitate to prove it today as well. Jonas Vingegaard will need to step up quite a lot if he wants to have a chance at the Tour.
A positive note is that he performed significantly better than yesterday in a tougher stage. He tried to follow Pogacar’s attack and quickly realized that was just too much for him, but he was able to maintain the gap around 20 seconds instead of losing more and more time. I was actually convinced that he would arrive more than 1 minute behind Pogacar, but only 14 seconds can even be considered as a (small) victory for the Dane.
I liked Visma’s ambition and how they attempted to send someone to the front of the race, but I think their tactics were not the best. They wasted Jorgenson pulling too far from the finish line and that did not lead to a Vingegaard attack, so it was meaningless in the end and was probably the reason of Jorgenson losing so much time.
I think taking turns to attack Pogacar would have been more effective than imposing a hard pace 70km away from the finish. And if Visma also wanted to pull, Jorgenson should have been saved for the last climb, especially when they also have Ben Tulett in terrific form.
Remco Evenepoel performed as yesterday, which also means as expected. A podium in the Tour would be the most he could aspire to, but this year I think he will have it more difficult than last year. He said he had lost 1.5kg compared to last year, but maybe he should lose 1.5 more to stand a chance.
He was beaten by Halland Johannessen today... The Norwegian has probably been the biggest surprise of this edition, who knew that he could climb like this? He finished fourth and looks in the shape of his life. I don’t know if he will target the GC at the Tour, but a top 10 might be a realistic goal for him.
Florian Lipowitz performed similar than yesterday, actually almost everyone did, there were no big surprises. The biggest disappointment for me has been Lenny Martínez. The French rider came to Dauphiné after a very solid season in which he obtained excellent results in every stage race he participated in. But here he has been completely invisible, a worrying sign with less than one month to the start of the Tour.
Tomorrow will be the last stage and only a successful break can avoid the fourth win for Pogacar. The stage plus the GC would allow him to reach his 100th professional victory in his career, and counting…
And you? What are your thoughts about what happened today? Leave a comment and join the discussion!
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It was morale not moral, try again.
regardless stupid comment by the reporter. Jonas didn’t lose minutes because Tadej didn’t ride as hard as he could have. there was no morale victory. jonas isn’t as good right now, and tadej can drop him anytime. could change for the tour, hopefully it does a bit so we have a race
Even if things stay as now, it’s easier for Tadej to do that a couple of days (he’s the far better classicer), harder for three weeks where Jonas starts to be in his element.