Preview - Critérium du Dauphiné 2022 stage 2

The second day of the Critérium du Dauphiné is one that is, as the opening day, quite open to surprises. One for the sprinters on paper, however some of them may struggle in the day’s long but shallow ascents. With just over 100 kilometers to go there is the summit of an 11-kilometer long ascent which features two categorized points, and from 83 to 46 kilometers to go there is an 1000-meter altitude gain with no descent, mostly in shallow climbing and rolling terrain.

The slight uphill will then give way to fast descending. A couple of hilltops with 13.5Km (1Km; 5.2%) and 9Km (1.2Km;4.9%) can cause further damage, however it’s a very explosive and fast finale. The riders will then keep descending into Brives for the finale.

In the final two kilometers the gradient flattens out, however the final 1.1 kilometers are quite technical and will add further challenge to the stage. The final straight is around 550 meters long.

**** Wout van Aert

*** Ethan Hayter, Dylan Groenewegen

** Phil Bauhaus, Juan Sebastián Molano, Sean Quinn

* Luca Mozzato, Clément Venturini, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Jasper Stuyven