June 14, 2026
It's been an odd edition of Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes, mostly because the race has never gotten into a regular rhythm. We should see a more traditional stage today however because the riders will face a brutal course with only climbing or descending for the entirety of the 120 km Queen stage. Starting in Beaufort, the race immediately starts climbing the 7 km, 9% Col du Pré. There is a little blip over the top before descending back into Beaufort to Le Doron River. Once in the neighboring town of Villars-sur-Doron, the riders will tackle the HC climb of Montée de Bisanne, an 11.5 km climb at almost 9% which takes the riders over 1,700 meters above sea level. The bunch will turn North over the top for a 20 km descent before dragging upwards again to the base of the Col des Aravis, a category one climb of 7 km at 7%. There are 47 km to go from the top, 35 of which are downhill. The majority of those kilometers are false flat downhill through Le Grand Bornand to Bonneville which will be the last opportunity to take on bottles and fuel before the final test. With 12 km to go on the outskirts of Bonneville, the riders will start climbing up to the finish atop the Plateau de Solaison. It's a very difficult climb of 11.5 km at 9% with only two places further up to catch your breath before the gradients bite again. The GC is finely balanced with the overall realistically still in play for five riders and with it being the final day, there is no reason to hold back if you have the legs.
Race Summary
Before the start, there was a question around the status of Paul Seixas after his crash from the day before. The Frenchman started the race but abandoned shortly after due to cuts on both arms and hips which was probably the best decision with July in mind. When the race got going on another perfect Summer's day, Netcompany-Ineos stacked the break with three riders including Laurens De Plus, Óscar Rodríguez, and Kévin Vauquelin. They were joined by Léo Bisiaux of Decathlon CMA CGM, Georg Steinhauser of EF-Education EasyPost, Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep, Harold Tejada of XDS-Astana, and KOM points leader Clément Braz Afonso of Groupama-FDJ United. Halfway through the stage on the descent off the Montée de Bisanne, the eight leaders had nearly 2 minutes on Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious who had been dropped and 2 minutes 30 seconds to the Lidl-Trek led peloton.
The break arrived at the base of the Col des Aravis with 53.5 km remaining and a gap of 1 minute 45 seconds to the peloton who still looked focused in the chase. The lower slopes were dotted with timber and stone chalets that had only just closed after a long winter season. The bunch was strung out as they made their way out of town and up into the green meadows towards the summit. De Plus led over the top with Braz Afonso in third wheel, giving the young Frenchman enough KOM points to mathematically secure that classification at the end of stage. The pace put on by Carlos Verona of Lidl-Trek had the gap down to just 35 seconds and the catch was all but guaranteed.
The road in the first few kilometers of the descent was sublime with long views of snow capped mountains, lush meadows in the foreground, and a serpentine road that looked like a shoelace carefully draped down the mountain. The gap held firm at around 40 seconds the whole way down the descent and into valley road towards Bonneville. When De Plus led onto the climb, the break had 47 seconds as Visma-Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek, and UAE-XRG were in a three-way arm wrestle for control of the front.
When the peloton started climbing the Plateau de Solaison, UAE-XRG had won position and were setting a fierce pace. The group was quickly down to 20 riders and Isaac del Toro's teammates were pulling and swinging off in short succession. The first of the GC leaders to be distanced was the race leader Luke Tuckwell of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. The group was stretched thin when del Toro accelerated with just under 9 km remaining. There was no attempt to follow the Mexican by anyone in the GC group; it was more a matter of pacing with such a long way still to climb. 200 meters after the attack, Rodríguez and Paret-Peintre, the last two from the original break, were caught and del Toro was off on his own, spinning a nice cadence and looking focused in the effort. Like in previous days, a chase formed with Mattias Skjelmose and Juan Ayuso of Lidl-Trek, Ben Tulett and Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike, Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility, and Cristián Rodríguez of XDS-Astana.
With 6 km to go through the village of Brison, del Toro was in the virtual race lead. The Ayuso/Jorgenson group was 40 seconds behind with Tuckwell pacing himself at 1 minute 10 seconds. In Brison, Ayuso attacked from the chase group and started to make progress on del Toro. He got as close as 36 seconds, but as the kilometers passed, the enthusiasm faded and Ayuso was losing time. With 3 km remaining, Ayuso was 50 seconds down, Jorgenson and company were 1 minute 20 seconds behind with Tuckwell still holding it together at 1 minute 45 seconds and getting help from teammate Maxim Van Gils. Gaps expanded the entire way to the finish and when del Toro crossed the line, he had built a margin large enough to let off the pedals in the last 100 meters and soak in the moment. 1 minute later, Ayuso took second place but only by a fine margin because Johannessen was coming like a rocket and shot across the finish line for third just 2 seconds later. Jorgenson fizzled and drifted back to the Tuckwell group which finished 1 minute 43 seconds down.
In the official results, Isaac del Toro became the first Mexican rider to win the Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes (formerly Critérium du Dauphiné). He did so by putting 54 seconds into Luke Tuckwell over the eight days of racing in what was a break through performance for the Aussie. Ayuso rounded out the GC podium spots for third place at 1 minute 17 seconds. The primary takeaway from the race was that del Toro is absolutely flying and will need to play a key role for Tadej Pogačar because the rest of the team didn't seem to have the same dominant control as we have seen in previous years.