At the last moment, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet managed to secure the top-10 finish he was aiming for coming into the Critérium du Dauphiné. In a relentless eighth and final stage on Sunday toward the Plateau du Mont-Cenis, the French climber delivered another fine performance to claim twelfth place and thus move up two positions in the overall standings (10th). A very promising weekend in anticipation of the next races.
There were “only” 133 kilometres left to complete the 2025 Critérium du Dauphiné on Sunday, but there were also nearly 3,500 metres of elevation gain left to be covered on this final day of racing. Unlike the previous stage, no major Alpine climbs were on the riders’ program, but a very hilly route was supposed to take them to the Plateau du Mont-Cenis, at an altitude of over 2,000 metres, after the final climb (9.7 km at 7%). Long before that, two small hills were supposed to spice up the start of the stage, and they certainly did. Twelve riders, including Enric Mas and Lenny Martinez, took advantage of it to escape, and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet tried to do it as well. “We wanted to get into the breakaway because we knew it could go far,” said Benoît Vaugrenard. “We had spotted the right riders, and Guillaume didn’t miss much. However, on the flat, facing twelve guys taking turns, we knew it was going to be hard.” “I really put in a big effort to try to get back, but I came up short for just 7-8 seconds,” he said. “I then had to recover, but it didn’t really slow down because Uno-X set a strong pace all day.”
“It bodes very well going forward”, Benoît Vaugrenard
The fugitives then approached the Col de Beaune, at the halfway point, with a gap of around two minutes, which stabilized for a long time. “We had to be positioned almost all the time, and fortunately my teammates helped me a lot in that regard,” said Guillaume. As the climbs followed one another, the bunch gradually reduced, so much so that it only included some forty men by the time it reached the bottom of the Col du Mont-Cenis, fifteen kilometres from the finish. The last men standing from the breakaway still had a lead of one minute and a half, and the favorites started fighting about five kilometres from the summit, which meant ten from the finish line. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet managed to cope with the first acceleration and found himself with just a handful of his rivals, before having to let Vingegaard and Pogacar slip away a few minutes later. “I really struggled on the flat, so I wasn’t very confident before the final climb, but ultimately, it wasn’t so bad,” said the Frenchman. “He climbed very well again, with the strongest,” emphasized Benoît.After covering the final kilometres alongside Carlos Rodriguez, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet ultimately finished twelfth on the line, eighth among the riders who weren’t in the breakaway. This performance allowed him to gain two places in this final stage and grab tenth place overall. “That was the goal from the start, and we achieved it,” Benoît said happily. “We gained ground day after day, and that was a good motivation. It bodes very well going forward. It shows that the work he’s done, especially during the training camp in Sierra Nevada, is paying off. Overall, it was a busy Critérium du Dauphiné for us. We were there in all areas: sprints, time trials, and the mountains. It was very interesting and a very nice week.”“The overall balance is pretty good,” Guillaume confirmed. “My condition has improved day by day, and now I’ll have to recover well and try to take another small step forward, if possible, in anticipation of the Tour.”
