Unexpected mistakes the only way to beat Ineos and Movistar in the mountains, says Kelderman

Bora Hansgrohe star Wilco Kelderman believes it will take a moment of madness or unexpected error for anyone to get the better of Ineos Grenadiers or Movistar during the Dauphine’s remaining two mountain stages.

Source: Velo

Catch all the action from stage 7 of the Criterium du Dauphine tonight LIVE, FREE and in HD on SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand from 9.20 pm. 

Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde powered to victory on the first big mountain stage to Le Sappey-en-Chartreuse beating Tao Geoghegan Hart of Ineos while fellow Ineos riders Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte were also among the top ten.

Kelderman says he expects more of the same on stage 7 and stage 8 with following the lead of Ineos and Movistar his best chance of beating them.

"Movistar and Ineos are really strong teams in general, so I think they will make the race the next few days," said Wilco Kelderman.

"For us, it's just a case of following. We've got a strong line-up here for the flat part of the race, but on the hills, we're missing a few guys.

“Ineos has a very strong lineup and that may be difficult for them to manage at times, but their three leaders could all be on the podium and any one of them could win.

I've just got to focus on myself and Patrick Konrad, and on what we can do in the mountains. We'll just try to follow and look for opportunities. We'll see what's possible on the last climb tomorrow."

That final climb is the HC graded 17km ascent to La Plagne which is sure to push the entire peloton to their limit.

Kelderman was one of many riders who have recently spent time doing altitude training in preparation for this type of challenge and says he believes he will be able to match it with the top climbers.

"At the beginning of the Dauphiné, I didn't feel very good because of the altitude camp. It always takes me a little bit of time to get in race mode, the muscles were a bit sore, but now I'm starting to feel better and better, even when racing uphill, so actually, I'm looking forward to tomorrow," he said.

The Bora-Hansgrohe rider was not the only one to identify Ineos and Movistar as the biggest threat on the Chartreuse Massif with American Sepp Kuss predicting a thrilling final two stages.

“(Ineos and Movistar) clearly wanted a sprint, so they kept the pace really high from the bottom of the final climb on stage six," Kuss said.

"It's hard to say what's going to happen just yet because we haven't hit the really high mountains. But I think there's a lot of guys that are really strong right now and the only sure thing is that these last two mountain stages will be really exciting.