The first two early refugees of this Dauphiné were not coincidentally two French: Paul Ourselin of Cofidis and Pierre Thierry van Arkéa-B & B Hotels. They knew that they would never sing it to the finish, because the men of Lidl-Trek checked the rate of in the beginning for their Sprinter Jonathan Milan.
At about 38 kilometers from the finish there was suddenly Tadej Pogacar. The world champion responded to the Côte de Buffon (600 meters at an average increase of 8.8 percent) swiftly to an attack attempt by Ryan Archie of EF Education-Easypost. Pogacar looked back and saw Jonas Vingegaard sticking on his wheel, Remco Evenepoel was not to be found. In the end the pace went out quickly.
On the last time Côte de Buffon, about six kilometers from the finish, it was actually a fingers who attacked. Pogacar and Van der Poel were immediately with it, Evenepoel also jumped there quite quickly. Santiago Buitrago was the fifth man in the elite group.