Running under the showers, the first stage of this 75th edition pushed to its climax the eternal and cruel game of cat and mouse between the breakaway and the peloton.

The last survivor of the day's getaway, the Belgian Rune Herregodts offered heroic resistance to the bulk of the troops in the last kilometers on the wet roads of Puy-de-Dôme.

At the red flame, the Intermarché rider had even regained a fifteen second lead by taking all the risks in the descent. But while we thought he had done the hardest, the Belgian, who perhaps turned too often to see where we were the pack, was caught and then overtaken, just a few meters from the goal.

And it was Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma), the best French rider since the beginning of the year, who emerged at the head of the peloton to win the sprint ahead of the Italian Matteo Trentin (UAE) and... Herregodts, magnificent but inconsolable third.

Christophe Laporte (left) picked up the Belgian Rune Herregodts (center), the last survivor of the day's breakaway, just a few meters from the finish line of the 1st stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré run on June 4, 2023 around Le Chambon-sur-Lac © Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP/Archives

"It was really limiting, with the rain, in the descent, he took a little time, while we were going fast behind. We had it in focus but you never know too much. The whole team went all out to make sure we could win. Even Jonas did the +lead out+ up to 300m from the line," Laporte said of his leader, Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, the big favorite for the general classification.

"An honor"

For Herregodts, the outcome was heartbreaking. But for Laporte, this third victory of the year, in just nine days of racing, confirms a very convincing start to the season, marked by his successes on the classics Ghent-Wevelgem and A Travers la Flandre.

It also shows that the 30-year-old from Var is in good shape less than a month before the start of the Tour de France (1-23 July), where he will again support Vingegaard and where he was the only Frenchman to win a stage last year.

The peloton during the 1st stage of the Critérium du Dauphine libéré, run in the downpours on June 4, 2023 © Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP / Archives

"On paper, it was a stage for me today (Sunday), with good bumps but not too steep. I knew that if I felt good, I had a good chance," said Laporte, who has now won the three biggest stage races in France, the Tour de France, Paris-Nice and the Critérium du Dauphiné.

As a reward, he donned the first yellow jersey of the 2023 edition that he will defend on Monday during a stage again very hilly between Brassac-les-Mines and La Chaise-Dieu, in Haute-Loire.

"It's always an honour to wear this beautiful yellow jersey, I will try to honour him," he said.

The favourites spent a rather uncomfortable day on roads made slippery by the many sometimes brutal showers that fell on the riders.

In the end, however, they managed to avoid the pitfalls to arrive grouped in the first peloton, except for the Spaniards Enric Mas and Mikel Landa who dropped 15 and 22 seconds respectively.

© 2023 AFP