The 2014 Critérium du Dauphiné was the sixty-sixth running of the

Critérium du Dauphiné The Critérium du Dauphiné, before 2010 known as the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, is an annual cycling road race in the Dauphiné region in the southeast of France. The race is run over eight days during the first half of June. It is par ...

cycling stage race; a race, organised by the

Amaury Sport Organisation The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) is part of the French media group Éditions Philippe Amaury. It organises the Tour de France and other cycling races, as well as golf, running, sailing and off-road motorsport events. The president of ASO is Je ...

, rated as a World Tour event on the UCI calendar, the highest classification such an event can have. The race consisted of eight stages, covering a distance of , beginning on 8 June in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

and concluding in

Courchevel Courchevel () is a French Alps ski resort. It is a part of Les Trois Vallées, the largest linked ski areas in the world. Courchevel also refers to the towns of Courchevel 1300 (Le Praz), Courchevel 1550, Courchevel 1650 (Moriond), and Cou ...

on 15 June. The Dauphiné was viewed as a great preparation for July's

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

and a number of the contenders for the general classification of the Tour participated in the Dauphiné.

Teams

As the Critérium du Dauphiné is a

UCI World Tour The UCI WorldTour (2009–2010: ''UCI World Ranking'') is the premier men's elite road cycling tour, sitting above the UCI ProSeries and various regional UCI Continental Circuits. It refers to both the tour of 38 events and, until 2019, an ann ...

event, all eighteen UCI ProTeams are invited automatically and obligated to send a squad with three other squads given wildcard places.

Route

Stages

Stage 1

;8 June 2014 —

to Lyon, ,

individual time trial An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa a cronometro'' " stopwatch stage"). There are also track ...

(ITT) The Critérium du Dauphiné began with a time trial on the streets of Lyon. Intermediate times were taken at , at the top of the only hill, to decide the rankings in the mountains competition.

Chris Froome Christopher Clive Froome ɹɪs fɹuːm (born 20 May 1985) is a Kenyan/British road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He has won seven Grand Tours: four editions of the Tour de France (in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017), one ...

, the defending champion, won the stage by eight seconds over his arch-rival and fellow GC contender,

Alberto Contador Alberto Contador Velasco (; born 6 December 1982) is a Spanish former professional cyclist. He is one of the most successful riders of his era, winning the Tour de France twice ( 2007, 2009), the Giro d'Italia twice (2008, 2015), and the V ...

. Contador managed to knock

Bob Jungels Bob Jungels (born 22 September 1992) is a Luxembourgish road bicycle racer, who rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career Born in Rollingen, Mersch, Luxembourg, Jungels competed in the Tour de France for the first time in 2015, as part of the UCI World ...

off the hot seat when he beat Jungels' time by one second after Jungels was on the hot seat for a long time. Another main GC contender,

Vincenzo Nibali ), The Nibbler , birth_date = , birth_place = Messina, Sicily, Italy , height = , weight = , currentteam = , discipline = Road , role = Rider , ridertype = Climber , proyears1 = 2005 , proteam1 = , proyears2 = 2006–2012 , protea ...

, took the fastest time at the top of the hill to take the lead in the mountains classification. However, he was not able to beat Contador at the finish as he eventually finished eighth on the stage, five seconds behind Contador's time. However, the best performance was left to Froome. Finishing second at the intermediate time-check, Froome eventually beat Contador's time by eight seconds to take the yellow-and-blue jersey for the general classification and the green jersey for the points classification after the first stage.

Stage 2

;9 June 2014 —

Tarare Tarare is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France. It lies on the Turdine river, 28 miles west-northwest of Lyon by rail. History The city was founded at the beginning of the 12th century, as the priory of Tarare by the Savigny A ...

to Pays d'Olliergues-Col du Béal,

Stage 3

;10 June 2014 —

Ambert Ambert (; Auvergnat: ''Embèrt'') is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. Administration Ambert is the seat of the canton of Ambert and the arrondissement of Ambert. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. ...

Le Teil Le Teil () is a commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality ...

Stage 4

;11 June 2014 —

Montélimar Montélimar (; Vivaro-Alpine: ''Montelaimar'' ; la, Acumum) is a town in the Drôme department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in north Provence, Southeastern France. It is the second-largest city in the department after Valence. In 2018 ...

to Gap,

Stage 5

;12 June 2014 —

Sisteron Sisteron (; , oc, label=Mistralian norm, Sisteroun; from oc, label=Old Occitan, Sestaron) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, southeastern France. Sisteron is situated on the banks of the rive ...

La Mure La Mure () is a commune in the Isère département in southeastern France. It is located south of Grenoble on the plateau Matheysin. Population Sights * The Chemin de fer de la Mure is a small touristic train using a railway initially bu ...

Stage 6

;13 June 2014 —

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

Poisy Poisy (; frp, Pouêzy) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It is part of the urban area of Annecy.Ville-la-Grand to

Finhaut Finhaut is a municipality in the district of Saint-Maurice in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. History Finhaut is first mentioned in 1293 as ''Finyaux''. Geography Finhaut has an area, , of . Of this area, 3.2% is used for agricultural ...

– Emosson ( Switzerland),

Stage 8

;15 June 2014 —

Megève Megève (; frp, Megéva) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France with a population of more than 3,000 residents. The town is well known as a ski resort near Mont Blanc in the French ...

to Courchevel-Le Praz,

Classification leadership

In the 2014 Critérium du Dauphiné, four different jerseys will be awarded. For the

general classification The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi-stage races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest cumulat ...

, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, the leader received a yellow jersey with a blue bar. This classification was considered the most important of the 2014 Critérium du Dauphiné, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race. Additionally, there was a

points classification The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning sprints at certain places along the route, most often called ''intermediate sprints''. The points cl ...

, which awarded a green jersey. In the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing in the top 10 in a stage. For all stages, the win earned 15 points, second place earned 12 points, third 10, fourth 8, fifth 6, and one point fewer per place down to a single point for 10th. Points towards the classification could also be achieved at each of the intermediate sprints; these points were given to the top three riders through the line with 5 points for first, 3 for second, and 1 point for third. There was also a mountains classification, the leadership of which was marked by a red and white polka-dot jersey. In the mountains classification, points were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists. Each climb was categorised as either hors, first, second, third, or fourth-category, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs.

Hors catégorie ''Hors catégorie'' (HC) is a French term used in stage bicycle races to designate a climb that is "beyond categorization". The term was originally used for those mountain roads where cars were not expected to be able to pass. The HC climb is the ...

climbs awarded the most points, with 20 points on offer for the first rider across the summit; the first ten riders were able to accrue points towards the mountains classification, compared with the first eight on first-category passes and the first six riders on second-category climbs. Fewer points were on offer for the smaller hills, marked as third-category or fourth-category. The fourth jersey represented the young rider classification, marked by a white jersey. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders born after 1 January 1989 were eligible to be ranked in the classification. There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest total time. ;Notes: * In stages 2–5,

, who was second in the points classification, wore the green jersey, because

(in first place) wore the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification during those stages. In stage 6, Contador still wore the green jersey despite having dropped to third in the points classification. Wilco Kelderman rose to second in the points classification after stage 5, but wore the white jersey as leader of the young rider classification during stage 6. * In stage 7,

Jan Bakelants Jan Bakelants (born 14 February 1986) is a Belgian professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career His major wins include the 2008 Tour de l'Avenir and stage 2 of the 2013 Tour de France, claiming the yellow je ...

, who was second in the points classification, wore the green jersey, because Chris Froome (in first place) wore the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification during that stage.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2014 Criterium du Dauphine Critérium du Dauphiné Criterium du Dauphine