Favorites stage 7 Critérium du Dauphiné 2025 | A ridiculous amount of climbing for this distance

After the first uphill test on Friday, the riders will set off shortly after noon (local time) on Saturday in Grand-Aigueblanche. This town lies directly at the foot of the first obstacle of the day, the Col de la Madeleine. This famous Alpine pass is 24.6 kilometers long and has an average gradient of 6.2 percent.

The long descent to La Chambre begins when the riders have covered 28.4 kilometers. There, the road climbs almost immediately, as the Col de la Croix de Fer must also be conquered in this stage. With its 22.4 kilometers at 6.9 percent, the Croix de Fer is just as daunting.

Anyone who thinks the riders are done for the day is in for a surprise. At the top of the day's second climb, the descent to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne begins, where we actually encounter the first flat sections of this stage.

This valley section lasts about fifteen kilometers and leads the riders to the foot of the last col of the day: Valmenier 1800. Yes, that's right... 1800 meters above sea level. The variables of this climb amount to 16.5 kilometers of climbing and an average gradient of 6.7 percent, where the decision will be made. That makes sense after a day with almost 5,000 meters of climbing in 130 kilometers.

Climbs
28.4 km: Col de la Madeleine (24.6 km at 6.2%)
70.8 km: Col de la Croix de Fer (22.4 km at 6.9%)
131.6 km: Valmenier 1800 (16.5 km at 6.7%)

Times
Start: 12:10 PM local time (06:10 AM EDT)
Finish: approximately 4:26 PM local time (10:26 AM EDT)

Saturday will also be warm in France. Even at the finish, at an altitude of 1800 meters, temperatures are expected to be well above 20 degrees Celsius. There will be hardly any wind, so the riders must mainly seek refreshment by drinking water.

So, have we recovered from everything we saw on Friday in the Dauphiné? Tadej Pogacar left everyone in his wake in the first Alpine stage with a phenomenal performance, putting himself in pole position for the overall victory in this edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné. Knowing Pogacar, he will want to add a queen stage to that on Saturday.

Visma | Lease a Bike seemed to have the upper hand on Friday's first tough climb. Sepp Kuss attacked, and in the end, the team was left with Jonas Vingegaard, Matteo Jorgenson, and Ben Tulett in the first group. However, when Jhonatan Narváez and Tim Wellens took turns at the front on the Poggio, there was little left of that group on the Domanchy.

It is possible that they will be able to use their numerical advantage on the longer climbs and that Vingegaard will have a slight advantage over Friday. However, that seems like wishful thinking at the moment. But how were we looking at it after the time trial?

Behind the UAE and Visma teams, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) held their own. The two men are battling it out for the white jersey, with Lipowitz seemingly having the edge over his Belgian opponent.

Behind them, there is a significant gap to the rest, although surprises could easily arise with the differences we already have. Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R), Emanuel Buchmann (Cofidis), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) all rode strongly on Friday.

And what about a breakaway? Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL) in his last race, of course, but we could also see guys like Guillaume Martin (Groupama-FDJ), Alexey Lutsenko (Israel-Premier Tech), and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) playing an attacking role.

Top favorites:Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike)