The 2015 Critérium du Dauphiné was the 67th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné cycling stage race. The eight-stage race in France began in Ugine on 7 June and concluded in

Modane Modane (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in southeastern France. The commune is in the Maurienne Valley, and it also belongs to the Vanoise ...

Valfréjus on 14 June, and was the sixteenth of the twenty-eight races in the 2015 UCI World Tour season. The Dauphiné was viewed as a preview for July's

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

and a number of the contenders for the general classification of the Tour participated in the race. The first leader of the general classification was 's Peter Kennaugh, who won the opening stage. He lost the race lead to rider

Rohan Dennis Rohan Craig Dennis (born 28 May 1990) is an Australian former cyclist, who competed professionally in the track cycling, track and road bicycle racing, road disciplines of the sport for five different teams. Having been a member of the Australi ...

, whose team won stage three's

team time trial A team time trial (TTT) is a road bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock (see individual time trial for a more detailed description of ITT events). The winning team in a TTT is determined by the comparing the times of ...

. His teammate Tejay van Garderen then took over after the race's first mountain stage, stage five.

Vincenzo Nibali Vincenzo Nibali (; born 14 November 1984) is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional from 2005 to 2022. He is one of seven cyclists who have won all three of cycling's Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours i ...

of the team took the lead after stage six, before van Garderen regained it following stage. Chris Froome (), who was second to van Garderen after the penultimate stage, claimed the race victory with his win on the final stage. Van Garderen finished second overall, ten seconds in arrears, with 's Rui Costa third, a further one minute and six seconds down. In the race's other classifications, Nacer Bouhanni () won the sprinter's points classification. The mountains classification was won by 's Daniel Teklehaimanot, who achieved it by getting in the early breakaways and placing highly over categorised climbs. Simon Yates of won the young rider classification as the best rider born after 1 January 1990. The team classification was won by .

Teams

As the Critérium du Dauphiné was a

UCI World Tour The UCI WorldTour 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 annual ranking system based upon perfor ...

event, all seventeen UCI WorldTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Four second-tier UCI Professional Continental teams were given wildcard invitations, forming the race's 21-team peloton. The number of riders allowed per squad was eight, therefore the start list contained a total of 168 riders. The teams entering the race were:

Pre-race favourites

Former winners of the general classification named in the start list were

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

winner

Alejandro Valverde Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (born 25 April 1980) is a Spanish cyclist, who competed as a professional in road bicycle racing from 2002 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2022, and now competes in gravel cycling for the Movistar Team Gravel Squad. During ...

(),

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

winner Chris Froome () and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

winner Andrew Talansky (). The leading contenders for general classification were two of the four

favourites, Froome and

(). Both winners of the previous two Tours, they were thought to have planned to use the Dauphiné's likeness to Tour's mountainous route as preparation. The riders considered outsiders included Talansky, Valverde, Joaquim Rodríguez (), Tejay van Garderen (), Rui Costa (), Romain Bardet (),

Bauke Mollema Bauke Mollema (; born 26 November 1986) is a Dutch professional cycle sport, cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam . He has finished in the top 10 in all three Grand Tours, with stage wins in the 2021 Tour de France, 2017 Tour de France, and the 2 ...

() and the winner of the young rider classification in 2014, Wilco Kelderman ().

Route

On 2 April 2015, the organiser of the race,

Amaury Sport Organisation The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO and also A.S.O.) is a private company, founded in 1992, that is part of the privately-owned French media group Éditions Philippe Amaury (EPA). ASO organises the Tour de France and other cycling races, as well a ...

(ASO), announced the route of the 2015 Critérium du Dauphiné at a presentation in Lyon, France. The eight-stage race in the

Dauphiné The Dauphiné ( , , ; or ; or ), formerly known in English as Dauphiny, is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was ...

region of France was held from 7–14 June, and was seen as a preview for the Alpine stages in the Tour de France, which took place the following month. The race opened with a hilly circuit stage around

Albertville Albertville (; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile'') is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It is best k ...

. Stage two crossed the flat

Dombes The Dombes (; ) is an area in eastern France, once an independent municipality, formerly part of the provinces of France, province of Burgundy (region), Burgundy, and now a district comprised in the department of France, department of Ain, and b ...

area west from Le Bourget-du-Lac to Villars-les-Dombes and covered a distance of . The third stage was a

, the first since the 1980 edition. The route from Roanne to Montagny was described by Stephen Farrand of '' Cyclingnews.com'' as rolling and could "seriously influence" the general classification. Stage four, the longest at , moved the race south to Sisteron and to the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

. The fifth stage covered the same distance and course as stage seventeen in the Tour de France. It featured the

Col d'Allos Col d'Allos (elevation ) is a high mountain pass in the Alps in the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in France. It connects Barcelonnette in the Ubaye Valley and Colmars. It lies parallel to the Col de la Cayolle and Col de la Bonette west o ...

mountain pass and ended with a summit finish at the

Pra-Loup Pra-Loup is a ski resort in France, at Uvernet-Fours in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, from the town of Barcelonnette. Geography Ski area The ski station has two separate base areas, 2 km apart: * Pra-Loup 1600 - primary base area at above ...

ski resort. Stage six took the race north, with the route from

Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur (; named for Bonitus (bishop), Saint Bonitus, before 1988: ''Saint-Bonnet'')Villard-de-Lans including six climbs. The penultimate stage was another mountainous stage that featured the Col de la Croix Fry and Col des Aravis climbs before a final accent to

Saint-Gervais-les-Bains Saint-Gervais-les-Bains () is a Communes of France, commune in the Haute-Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region, southeastern France. The village is best known for tourism and has been a po ...

. The final stage took in the Lacets de Montvernier before moving through the

Maurienne Maurienne (; ; ) is one of the provinces of Savoy, corresponding to the arrondissement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in France. It is also the original name of the capital of the province, now Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. Location The Maurienne val ...

valley to the finish at

Valfréjus.

Stages

Stage 1

7 June 2015 — Ugine to

2015 Tour of Britain - 023 Peter Kennaugh

The race opened with its shortest race stage, at . The route left Ugine and passed the finishing city of Albertville, before a loop that featured the category 4 Côte d'Esserts-Blay, in. On the return to Albertville the riders crossed the finish line for the first time for a lap. In this lap were two climbs, the third-category Côte du Villard () and the fourth-category Côte du Cruet, the highest of the stage at . As the race crossed the finish line for the second time, a shorter circuit was undertaken five times, with the primary difference being the exclusion of the Côte du Cruet. In the opening ,

Gert Dockx Gert Dockx (born 4 July 1988) is a former Belgian professional road bicycle racer who rode for UCI ProTour team . Career achievements Major results ;2010 : 7th Hel van het Mergelland ;2012 : 6th Druivenkoers Overijse ;2013 : 1st Stage 7 La ...

of was involved in a crash and was forced to abandon the race due to his injuries. After , a breakaway was formed by Romain Guillemois (), Björn Thurau (), Daniel Teklehaimanot () and Maarten Wynants (). Their advantage over the

peloton In a road Cycle sport, bicycle race, the peloton (, originally meaning ) is the main group or pack of riders. Riders in a group save energy by riding close (drafting (racing), drafting or slipstreaming) to (particularly behind) other riders. The ...

increased to over four minutes at the mark, which moved up to a maximum of around seven minutes twenty seconds. Teklehaimanot accrued enough mountains classification points to secure the polka dot jersey with two climbs of the Côte du Villard to go. Wijnants and Guillemois were dropped from the quartet on the penultimate ascent of the Villard, with to go. Thurau attacked Teklehaimanot on the last passing of the Villard, which led to an attack by Daniel Oss () from the chasing peloton. With remaining, four more riders joined Oss and the group caught Thurau in the final , with the six-rider group holding a margin of twelve seconds. Peter Kennaugh of attacked from the group with remaining and took the stage victory two seconds ahead of the bunch sprint. Kennaugh's first place gave him a ten-second time bonus in the general classification; he also took the lead of the points classification and Sky topped the team classification. Tiesj Benoot of became the first leader of the young rider classification.

Stage 2

8 June 2015 — Le Bourget-du-Lac to Villars-les-Dombes, Stage two's course was the flattest of the race. The stage left the start at Le Bourget-du-Lac and within crossed the second-category Col du Chat. After five smaller climbs, in, the riders then came to the day's highest climb at , the first-category . The route then followed a descent that included three uncategorised climbs. The final to the finish in Villars-les-Dombes were flat. The early breakaway was formed by three riders, Perrig Quéméneur (), Arnaud Courteille () and, for the second day running, Daniel Teklehaimanot. Teklehaimanot took the maximum points over the Col du Chat. The trio were under seven minutes ahead of the peloton at the foot of the Col de Cuvery. Teklehaimanot again took the points at the top, where the lead had dropped to over a minute. A crash in the peloton with remaining left a group of riders chasing to the back of the main group, including pre-race favourite Joaquim Rodríguez. The breakaway was caught with remaining. In the final kilometre, the team controlled the front before leading out their sprinter, Edvald Boasson Hagen. His move was made too early and he was overtaken by three other riders, with Nacer Bouhanni () crossing the finish line first. Third-placed Sacha Modolo () took the lead of the points classification, with Bouhanni becoming the best young rider.

Stage 3

9 June 2015 — Roanne to Montagny, ,

(TTT) The route for the team time trial of stage three from Roanne to Montagny was in length. At the mark, a small climb preceded a descent to the intermediate time check at . A gradual incline took the stage to its finish. were the first team to set a time, with 31' 31". They were soon displaced by the third team to start , the team time trial world champions, who set a time of 29' 58". then came in with a four-second deficit to BMC and placed second. were next recording a time of 30' 16", which put them third. 's time of 30' 21" placed them fourth, with fifth taken by , a further five seconds in arrears. , who placed sixth, lost their lead of the team classification to stage winners BMC. Although BMC's highest placed rider in the general classification was Manuel Quinziato, he was not one of the five riders required to finish; the highest of the five was

, who became the new leader in both the general and young rider classifications. Second placed overall Tejay van Garderen, who was BMC's general classification leader and a pre-race favourite praised his team's effort and was confident about his chances in the race, saying "I feel good. This was the first big test of the Dauphiné, and going into the mountains I feel ready to put up a good challenge." Nacer Bouhanni moved into the lead of the points classification as Sacha Modolo failed to start.

Stage 4

10 June 2015 — Anneyron to Sisteron, The fourth stage was the longest of the race at . Starting in Anneyron, the route covered rolling terrain until the passing of the third-category Col de Lescou at . A short descent led to the foot of the fourth-category Col de Pre-Guittard, the stage's highest point. A similarly sized uncategorised climb followed. The long descent featured a number of small rises before the Côte de la Marquise with to go. A series of small climbs then took the stage to the flat finish at Sisteron. A breakaway duo consisting of Martijn Keizer () and Tosh Van der Sande () escaped into the stage. Their lead was six minutes and thirty seconds after they had passed the Lescou and Pre-Guittard climbs. At the foot of the Côte de la Marquise, the pair had a one-minute advantage. Van der Sande was dropped on the climb and Keizer led over the summit with margin of twenty seconds. Attacks from the peloton on the descent saw the formation of a group consisting of Cyril Gautier (),

Tim Wellens Tim Wellens (born 10 May 1991) is a Belgium, Belgian professional road bicycle racing, road cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam . Since turning professional in 2012, and coming from a family of professional cyclists, Wellens has taken almost for ...

(), Lawson Craddock () and Wilco Kelderman. Wellens attacked and then passed Keizer. Wellens was caught by the peloton in the final , before a failed move by a trio consisting of Daniel Oss, Tony Martin () and Bram Tankink (). Tony Gallopin () launched a late attack, but was caught during the bunch sprint that was won by Nacer Bouhanni, his second stage victory of the race. There were no changes to the classifications.

Stage 5

11 June 2015 —

Digne-les-Bains Digne-les-Bains (; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Dinha dei Banhs''), or simply and historically Digne (''Dinha'' in the Franco-Provençal, classical norm or ''Digno'' in the Mistralian norm), is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Alpe ...

, Stage five from Digne-les-Bains to Pra-Loup was the first classified as mountainous and was in length. The first section of the stage was flat, until the passing of the third-category Col des Léques at . After a descent and small rise a came another third-category climb, the Col de Toutes Aures. The route then dropped down before a further rising up to the second-category which topped at in. The descent was followed by the first-category Col d'Allos at . The resulting descent, which began with to go, was long and technical. The final climb to the finish at Pra-Loup was long and had an average gradient of 6.5%. Mountains classification leader Daniel Teklehaimanot was the first to initiate the early seven-rider breakaway; the other riders were Christophe Riblon (), Tim Wellens, Pieter Serry (), Romain Sicard (), Arnaud Courteille, and Albert Timmer (both ). Courteille claimed the points at the Col des Lèques, with Teklehaimanot second, with the aforementioned first over the Col de Toutes Aures and Col de la Colle-Saint-Michel. set a high pace at the head of the peloton throughout the Col d'Allos, leading to a large number of riders being dropped, including the race leader Rohan Dennis. In the breakaway, an attack by Serry dropped Riblon, Teklehaimanot, and Courteille. Before the summit of the climb, with remaining, the break was caught. As the race reached the summit, Romain Bardet attacked, and the bottom had gained a twenty-second advantage over the front group of around thirty riders, increasing it to one minute at the foot of the Pra-Loup climb. Sky again controlled the head of the chase, with Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde and Wilco Kelderman the notable riders distanced. Chris Froome launched an attack in the final , with Tejay van Garderen and Beñat Intxausti following. Van Garderen dropped Intxausti and passed Froome to take second place, thirty-six seconds behind stage winner Bardet. The new leaders in the classifications were van Garderen in the general, Bardet in the young riders' and Sky in the team standings.

Stage 6

12 June 2015 —

Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur (; named for Bonitus (bishop), Saint Bonitus, before 1988: ''Saint-Bonnet'')Villard-de-Lans, Villard

The sixth stage from Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur to Villard-de-Lans moved the race into the high mountains with six categorised climbs. It was the second longest stage at . The opening third of the route crossed hilly terrain that featured two third-category climbs, the Rampe du Motty and the Côte du Barrage de Sautet. The riders traversed the second-category Col de la Croix Haute at the mark, before a short descent and a further rise to the third-category Col de Grimone. After a long descent and short rise, the race came to the foot of the first-category . At the summit with remaining, the day's highest point (), the riders dropped down to the final hills before the summit finish at the third-category climb to Villard-de-Lans. Early in the wet stage, a group of nine riders broke away, only to be pulled back the peloton, with a second group of nineteen also failing. An unsuccessful move from Tony Martin was followed by an attack by Vincenzo Nibali over the Col de Grimone and the formation of an elite five-strong group on descent with Rui Costa, Alejandro Valverde, and Tony Gallopin. This attack reduced the main group of chasers and caused the abandonment of several riders. The advantage of the break was over three minutes as they climbed the Col de Rousset, with Nibali briefly escaping on the subsequent descent. Martin was dropped with remaining, with the advantage at over two minutes. In the chasing main group, Simon Yates () and Dan Martin () moved clear. Gallopin launched an attack from the breakaway with to go, with Nibali following at . Costa was able to pull both back ahead and passed them to take the stage win. Nibali took over the lead of the general classification, with a margin of twenty-nine seconds over Costa. moved into the lead of the team classification.

Stage 7

13 June 2015 — Montmélian to

, Stage seven was the queen stage of the race, with five first-category climbs and the third-category Col des Aravis. It was the shortest in length of the three mountain stages. The initial were flat apart from one small climb. The riders then began the climb of the Col de Tamié, which was followed by the ascent of Col de la Forclaz. After a descent and a number of small hills, the Col de la Croix Fry was climbed. At the top a small drop and climb over the Col des Aravis took the riders to a descent and a long gradual incline. A further descent and flat section placed the race at the foot of the Côte des Amerand. After a small drop the stage concluded with the climb to Saint-Gervais-les-Bains. Another wet stage saw a breakaway of thirty-five riders move away in, which decreased to twenty-five on the Col de la Croix Fry. On the aforemetenioed climb, reduced the size of the peloton and the advantage of the breakaway. Daniel Teklehaimanot took maximum points over the opening four climbs to secure the mountains classification. The Col des Aravis split the breakaway, and on the descent, an attack out of the eighteen-strong leading group by Daniel Navarro () and Riccardo Zoidl () gained a lead of three minutes. The peloton fractured on the Côte des Amerands, with race leader Vincenzo Nibali being dropped. At the start of the final climb, the leading duo were joined by Jonathan Castroviejo () and Bartosz Huzarski (). Sky set a high pace in pursuit of the leading group, and with to go, Chris Froome attacked, followed by Tejay van Garderen, and they soon passed the leaders. With remaining, Froome attacked to win the stage by a margin of seventeen seconds. Van Garderen moved into the lead of the general classification, and although placing second in the stage, he was content, saying "My tactic was just to mark Froome and when he went there was no way I could follow him, but I'm very happy with the yellow jersey."

Stage 8

14 June 2015 —

Valfréjus, The final stage of the race left from the location of the previous stage's finish, Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, for a route. After the riders climbed a rise from the start, they went down a long descent with the second-category Côte d'Héry-sur-Ugine in the middle. The terrain remained flat until the fourth-category Côte d'Aiton, in. This was followed by the third-category Côte de

Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières (; before 2013, Saint-Georges-des-Hurtières)Décret n° 2013-98 ...

. A further flat section placed the riders at the foot of the first-category Lacets de Montvernier. After the subsequent descent began a long gradual incline to the climb of the third-category Côte de Saint-André. A small descent took the race to Modane and the ascent to the summit finish at the Valfréjus ski resort; the length of the climb was with an average gradient of 5.7%. Wilco Kelderman's move in the opening initiated a breakaway of thirteen riders. Tony Martin attacked from the break on the Côte de Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières and at the foot of the Lacets de Montvernier he had an advantage of one-and-a-half minutes over them and around four over the peloton. The last of the riders from the break caught Martin on the Côte de Saint-André, where Steve Cummings of attacked this front group. Cummings' lead over the peloton at the foot of the final climb was one minute and twenty seconds. With remaining, Vincenzo Nibali moved to the front in support of teammate Michele Scarponi, whose failed attack led to the formation of an elite group of chasers including the general classification leaders. Chris Froome was the only rider to have the support of a teammate, Wout Poels, who rode on the front until Froome attacked as they caught Cummings. At first Tejay van Garderen could follow this move, but he was eventually unable to keep up with Froome and was caught by Simon Yates and Rui Costa. Froome took the stage victory, eighteen seconds ahead of the three behind, and finished the race as the winner of the general classification.

Classification leadership

In the Critérium du Dauphiné, four different jerseys were awarded. The most important was the general classification, which was calculated by adding each rider's finishing times on each stage. The rider with the least accumulated time is the race leader, identified by a yellow jersey with a blue bar; the winner of this classification was considered the winner of the race. Additionally, there was a points classification, which awarded a green jersey. In the classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 10 in a stage. For stages, 1, 2 and 4 the win earned 25 points, second place 22, third 20, fourth 18, fifth 16, sixth 14, seventh 12, eighth 10, ninth 8 and tenth 6. For stages 5, 6, 7 and 8 the win earned 15 points, second place 12, third 10, fourth 8, fifth 6, and 1 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 jersey with white

polka dot Red polka dots on a yellow background Alison Jackson wears a cycling_jersey.html" ;"title="Queen of the Mountains polkadot cycling jersey">Queen of the Mountains polkadot cycling jersey The polka dot, also written polkadot, and also called s ...

s. In the mountains classification, points towards the classification were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists. Each climb was categorised as either first, second, third, or fourth-category, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs. First-category climbs awarded the most points; the first six riders were able to accrue points, compared with the first four on second-category climbs, the first two on third-category and only the first for 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 on or after 1 January 1990 were eligible to be ranked in the classification. There was also a team classification, 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.

Final standings

General classification

Points classification

Mountains classification

Young rider classification

Team classification

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Criterium du Dauphine, 2015

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2015 UCI World Tour June 2015 sports events in France