Ten days ago, a lot of us had a very different idea of how the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes was going to go. With so many of the big Tour de France favourites not there, and wonderkid Paul Seixas lining up to continue his whirlwind season, it seemed like he was a shoo-in for the podium, and the other Tour hopefuls would show their levels behind him.
But that’s not what happened. Seixas left the race bruised and battered in a team car, a breakthrough rider finished second, and Tadej Pogačar’s super domestique, Isaac del Toro, won the thing. Only one Tour leader landed on the podium – Juan Ayuso – and for most, the race probably did more damage to their standings than good.
The Dauphiné used to be the race where every year a rider or three would really step up to the mark and show just how strong they were before the Tour de France. This year’s renamed edition seemed to do more of the opposite – the race exposed weaknesses in many.
Denigrating Isaac del Toro to ‘just’ a super domestique is, of course, hyperbole from me. He’s a Grand Tour podium finisher and won Tirreno-Adriatico and the UAE Tour this year, and came to the Dauphiné as a key favourite.
On any other team, he’d be headed to next month’s Tour as leader. But as it is, he’ll start in Barcelona as a luxury helper for Pogačar, possibly with designs on the podium, but primarily a domestique.
So the fact that he won, by head and shoulders above Juan Ayuso, whilst the likes of Oscar Onley, Paul Seixas and Cian Uijtdebroeks either did not finish or didn’t come close, does not exactly bode well for any added competition at the Tour.
Many might have been hoping that this race would remind us that there are other good GC riders, that it might not just be a Pogačar vs Vingegaard two-horse battle that soon becomes one. Unfortunately, that probably looks more likely than ever right now.
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Looking at the final results, and indeed the stages that led there, it is pretty hard to identify anyone who came out of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes looking better for the Tour than they did beforehand.
Seixas’ race wasn’t going particularly well, even before he crashed and later abandoned. Oscar Onley was under pressure to prove that he should still be considered a Tour contender and add some sort of positivity to his Ineos tenure. He ended the race crashing into a ravine, and it’s now unclear if he can even start the Tour in two weeks.
The intra-team rivalry that we thought might brew between him and Kévin Vauquelin? They probably don’t need to worry about that, as the only thing they’re currently competing for is who can have the least fortunate start to life at the British squad. The pair attempted to try and turn their fate around here, but the week only seemed to further entrench their woes.
Juan Ayuso had a positive race by his 2026 standards, given his poor luck so far, but was quite comprehensively bettered by Del Toro, and couldn’t overcome Tuckwell for second. It doesn’t inspire confidence in the idea that he might be able to challenge the likes of Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard for a spot on the Tour podium in a few weeks.
And everyone else was, well, just fine. Fifth for Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), sixth for Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and seventh for Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar). They confirmed that they’ll be there to fight for the bottom of the top 10 at the Tour, and not much else.
So who did win? Well, Del Toro, of course, and by extension, probably Pogačar – he can take successes from races when he’s not even there, such is his omnipresent grip on this sport. Pogačar will now start the Tour as not just the four-time winner and the far-and-away favourite, but he’ll do so with a stronger super domestique than he has in years.
Jonas Vingegaard’s Del Toro equivalent, Matteo Jorgenson, had a ‘nothing special’ kind of ride to finish fourth overall, and confirm that he’s in good shape to do what he does excellently – support Vingegaard around France – but his ride did not blow anyone away or rewrite any scripts.
The other winners were – in the kindest way possible – fairly inconsequential when it comes to the bigger picture, which is the fight for yellow this July. Alex Baudin obviously had a great race, spending most of it in the lead.
And then there was Luke Tuckwell, who stepped up to the plate equally impressively, honouring the jersey to the very last and securing himself a fantastic second overall. It’s a huge result for the Australian, and should take him from under-the-radar to serious up-and-comer. But does it mean we have a new Tour contender on our hands? Not right now, no.
And so the Tour de France ramp-up race did not really ramp up the tension or raise the stakes at all. Where we had hoped for glimpses of new blood, signs that Pogačar might be properly challenged this year, we instead got confirmation of what we already knew: no one new is going to come and upend Pogačar and UAE at this Tour.
No one is secretly in podium-upsetting form. Pogačar is on top, Vingegaard is closest, and everyone else will be fighting for scraps – or perhaps for nothing at all, given how many people couldn’t even finish the Dauphiné.
Cycling can be unpredictable, and in many ways, the last week of racing was, in that it didn’t stick to the pre-race script, but ultimately, the surprises only go so far. And for now, we’re not expecting big ones at the Tour.
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