Monday 13 June 2016 09:44, UK
The Criterium du Dauphine is usually an accurate barometer of a rider’s condition ahead of the Tour de France and this year’s edition exposed some stark differences in form.
Chris Froome claimed victory ahead of Romain Bardet and Dan Martin, but Richie Porte and Alberto Contador could finish only fourth and fifth respectively.
Here, we pick out the main conclusions from the race…
Given that Froome's victories in the 2013 and 2015 Tours were both built on wins at the Dauphine a month prior, his triumph this week offered concrete evidence that he is peaking perfectly for his bid for a third maillot jaune.
Froome could easily have been forgiven for targeting just the top five when you consider that he was ill for large parts of the spring and consequently finished only eighth at the Volta a Catalunya in March and 38th at the Tour de Romandie in April.
But instead he soundly defeated Contador on two mountain stages, had the race sharpness to beat Porte in a sprint for victory on stage five, and he then defended brilliantly when under heavy pressure on stages six and seven.
He said after the Dauphine that he has more work to do between now and the opening stage of the Tour of July 2, but from what we saw this week, it can't be much more than fine-tuning and tinkering.
While Froome appears to be exactly on track for the Tour, Contador seemingly has a lot of ground to make up.
The 33-year-old Spaniard had enjoyed a superb season up until this week, but his condition was badly exposed when he was dropped by both Froome and Porte on Friday's mountainous fifth stage to Vaujany.
He lost more time to Froome on Saturday and although he launched two huge attacks on Sunday's finale, he still couldn't shake off the Briton and eventually finished the race 35 seconds down in fifth.
Unless he can muster a significant improvement in form, Contador right now looks like he's racing for a place on the podium at the Tour at best.
The consolation for Contador is that his condition is not half as bad as Fabio Aru's. The 25-year-old Italian is expected to lead Astana at the Tour and had been touted as a potential winner, but on the evidence of the past eight days, he doesn't stand a chance.
Granted, he won stage three of the Dauphine on Wednesday, but that was an opportunist attack on a flat day and did not give an accurate indication of his form.
Far more pertinent were his dreadful performances in the mountains, which ultimately resulted in him finishing more than 40 minutes down on Froome in 45th overall.
He now needs to make remarkable improvements over the next three weeks to have any hope of finishing on the podium at the Tour, let alone win the yellow jersey.
Porte looked to be peaking beautifully for the Tour when he was the only rider able to follow Froome's attack on stage five of the Dauphine to Vaujony.
However, the 31-year-old Australian is prone to off days and duly suffered one 24 hours later, losing 14 seconds to Froome and six seconds to Contador on the climb to Meribel.
That he suffered such a loss of climbing form after just seven days of racing was a worry given that will have almost three weeks and 3,000km in his legs by the time the Tour reaches its potentially decisive mountain stages in the Alps.
There also has to be a concern that he is still to win on a summit finish against the very best climbers in the world.
