Now things get serious at the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes.<\/p>\n
Three brutal summit finishes stacked up in the Alps will decide not only who wins France\u2019s second-biggest stage race, but who carries momentum into the Tour de France.<\/p>\n
With Tadej Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard sitting this one out, the kids finally have the playground to themselves.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what makes this weekend so interesting. Cycling\u2019s young guns \u2014 Del Toro, Ayuso, Seixas, Jorgenson, Onley, and Vauquelin \u2014 finally get a chance to race for victory instead of fighting over third behind Pog and Vingo.<\/p>\n
If you want to see who\u2019s coming for the yellow jersey in the post-Poga\u010dar era, the Dauphin\u00e9\u2019s closing weekend is a pretty good place to start.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll three are real mountain stages, but Friday is the least challenging of the three, but that doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t hurt,\u201d Jorgenson said. \u201cI feel good. I\u2019m happy to make it to the weekend in the Alps in the sunshine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several of them will arrive at the Tour de France next month already packing genuine podium ambitions.<\/p>\n
Surprise leader Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) still sits atop the standings, while only three seconds separate K\u00e9vin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley (both Netcompany-Ineos), and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) among the main contenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Friday there will not be huge gaps between the favorites,\u201d said Baudin, who\u2019s led since his stage 1 raid. \u201cThe final climb is not super long, but the fireworks for the GC will definitely start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some say the new-look Dauphin\u00e9 is a Tour de France preparation race. No way for these guys. They\u2019re racing for the win.<\/p>\n
The Alps will decide more than the Dauphin\u00e9<\/h2>\n
After five slow-simmer transition stages, the GC is packed tight among the top pre-race favorites. For once, no one crashed, got sick, or abandoned.<\/p>\n
Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) sits 35 seconds back, while Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar) and Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG) are all within a minute.<\/p>\n
One good climb could change everything. Del Toro is trying to tamp down the hype.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to think about the final stages of the week. We\u2019ll need to have the best legs there and we\u2019ll have to race aggressively,\u201d Del Toro told IDL.com<\/em>. \u201cHopefully we can really race at the end of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n If the racing wasn\u2019t enough, there are plenty of storylines bubbling beneath the surface.<\/p>\n Perhaps the biggest surprise so far is Seixas. The French phenom lost time on the opening stage and again in the team time trial. He was always expected to attack in the mountains, but now he has no choice.<\/p>\n Jorgenson, a two-time winner at Paris-Nice and runner-up at the 2024 Dauphin\u00e9, is looking strong after coming back from a broken clavicle at the Amstel Gold Race.<\/p>\n This weekend will reveal how long he can stay with Del Toro and Seixas when the flares light up in the high Alps.<\/p>\n The Ineos duo of Vauquelin and Onley will want to prove they can finish the job in their new roles as team leaders after a team time trial mixup created a few awkward moments.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m in a good place for the coming days,\u201d Onley said. \u201cWe\u2019re in a nice position to be in right now. We got a decent buffer over some of the other GC guys. Jorgenson is only three seconds behind, and if I have the legs to follow Seixas, Del Toro and the Trek boys, I will try.\u201d<\/p>\n Ayuso and Del Toro will want to erase frustrating spring campaigns and prove they\u2019re more than cycling\u2019s princes-in-waiting.<\/p>\n The race has been simmering all week. Now come the climbs everyone has been waiting for.<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s stage 6 to Crest-Voland should begin the weeding out process. The 182.3km route packs nearly 3,000 meters of climbing before a relentless uphill grind in the final 20 kilometers.<\/p>\n As Baudin said, Friday is the easiest on paper. Sparks will fly, but the strongest will probably stay close together, unless someone uncorks a massive attack.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope it controlled and we can just ride up the final,\u201d said Jayco\u2019s Luke Plapp. \u201cI hope I can get to the bottom of the last climb and see what\u2019s the best 15-minute effort I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s stage 7 cranks up with a short, savage mountain stage that squeezes more than 3,700 vertical meters into just 133.6km. The day ends atop the legendary Grand Colombier.<\/p>\n Then comes Sunday\u2019s queen stage. The peloton faces a whopping 4,051m of climbing across only 120.1km, with a string of endless climbs before the final showdown atop the spectacular Plateau de Solaison.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have three stages ahead of us, so we are looking at three chances to gain back time,\u201d Seixas said. \u201cToday is a 15-minute effort, so it will be a good test for everyone. We will see who has the legs.\u201d<\/p>\n With nearly 11,000 meters of climbing, this is full-gas racing at its crackling best.<\/p>\n Will this new generation follow Poga\u010dar\u2019s playbook and light the fuse from a distance?<\/p>\n Or will they stick to cycling\u2019s old blueprint and wait for the final climb?<\/p>\n Our hunch? The attacks will fly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/three-brutal-summit-finishes-no-pogacar-or-vingegaard-cyclings-new-guard-gets-its-shot\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/del-toro-jorgenson-seixas-2026.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated June 12, 2026 05:52AM Now things get serious at the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes. Three brutal summit finishes stacked up in the Alps will decide not only who wins France\u2019s second-biggest stage race, but who carries momentum into the Tour de France. With Tadej Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard sitting this one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1988591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1988591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1988591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1988591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1988591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Three stages to decide the crown<\/h2>\n