Sunday’s first stage of the rebranded Critérium du Dauphiné, France’s Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, dubbed the Aura Tour by some, went the way of the breakaway, with last-refugee-standing Alex Baudin winning in Saint-Ismier. It was his first WorldTour victory and he did it very close to his home. Michael Leonard was top Canadian in 55th.
Preliminaries
Last year Tadej Pocacar took three stages while winning the race, Jonas Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz in the podium.
Canada was represented by Hugo Houle and Michael Leonard.
The Course
They weren’t exactly easing into the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes on Sunday. Five categorized climbs over 147 km would spur on those who wanted to first wear the mountains jersey, white dots on sky blue. The final climb was the hardest, Cat. 1 Côte de Rousset, 8.3 km at 7.6 percent, cresting with 20 km to go.
Image by La FlammeRouge
Sunday’s breakaway was a nontet, a big one for Stage 1 of a WorldTour stage race. Spaniard Sergio Samitier of Cofidis took the KOM lead on the first three climbs, but Cat. 2 Col de Vence, the penultimate ascent, trimmed Samitier and several rider from the break. João Almeida losing contact with the peloton revealed that he wouldn’t be a GC contender this June. Three riders crested Vence 2:00 in front of the peloton, Samitier’s blue-with-white-polka-dots safe for now.
The Cat. 1 was Côte de Rousset. UAE-Emirates drove the peloton as in closed in on the breakaway on its way to the foot. When the road kicked up Visma-Lease a Bike took over. Ben Healy couldn’t stay with the field. Healy’s teammate Alex Baudin was the only refugee from the original break to survive the climb.
After the descent of Côte de Rousset, it was clear that the peloton had left it too late. A strong chase containing high-powered Netcompany-Ineos’ Oscar Onley and Kévin Vauquelin bounced away after Baudin.
The climbs on Monday’s stage aren’t as daunting, but the sprinters still have to survive them to be in the running in Le Puy-en-Velay.
2026 Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
1) Alex Baudin (France/EF Education-Easypost) 3:43:58
2) Ramses Debruyne (Belgium/Alpecin-Premier Tech) +0:32
3) Léo Bisiaux (France/Decathlon-CMA-CGM) s.t.
55) Michael Leonard (Canada/EF Education-Easypost) +9:40