"Is Pogacar beatable? Normally you'd say no" - Has Criterium du Dauphiné already been decided?

The Criterium du Dauphiné completely exploded this Friday afternoon with the ascent to Combloux where Tadaj Pogacar left his rivals in his wake. The World Champion has put on the yellow jersey and there are questions over whether he has already virtually sealed it.

“With him, you always expect something, but the rest had also risen in the rankings. We saw that in the poll we did for overall victory in the Dauphiné. You see the Visma guys riding full gas on the penultimate climb, clearly trying to make the race hard. And then they’re still left with three riders, Tulett, Jorgenson, and Vingegaard himself as a kind of field general," De Cauwer said on Sporza.

However Visma was not able to break through Pogacar's hold, and later on it would be easy to understand why, as the Slovenian looked head and shoulders above the rest. He won the stage with over a minute's lead on Jonas Vingegaard, enough to take all the time back he lost in the time-trial and put in a considerable margin.

“Normally, we’ve seen Vingegaard hang on for longer. I’m not saying he didn’t try, but he gave in fairly quickly, he didn’t want to blow himself up completely," De Cauwer argues. "You saw Evenepoel do the same, just sticking to his own rhythm. But that rhythm was simply too slow. Same for Vingegaard.”

Ultimately nothing could've been done there, but that may not apply to the Alpine monster that is on the menu this Saturday. “There are three long climbs on Saturday. When a rider loses time, we always look for reasons. Was it yesterday’s crash? His time-trial was solid, so maybe there’s more in the tank.”

“And then suddenly, today he’s less again. That’s the Pogacar story. You have to assume, he’s the best rider right now. Has been for three, maybe five years, even though Vingegaard won the Tour twice. So, is Pogacar beatable? Normally you'd say no," the Belgian commentator believes. "But Vingegaard is Vingegaard, and Evenepoel is Evenepoel. They’ll have their moments. We always look for opportunities, and so do they.”

“We might see a different race tomorrow. I wouldn’t dare say it’ll play out the same way, even though that would make sense. Pogacar will control things now, but on those long grinding climbs, Vingegaard and Evenepoel might perform better. It’s all up or down, so what can your domestiques really do for you then?” The presence of Jhonatan Narváez and Tim Wellens as the main supporters for Pogacar yesterday are also not the best indicator for the high mountains.

“Two days ago, Pogacar still had work to do. We were saying Vingegaard looked ready, maybe better than ever. Evenepoel was at his optimal weight and riding faster than ever. So… where do we stand now?”