Former Spanish champion Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) won a dramatic final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné on Sunday, as Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) clung on to claim the overall victory by eight seconds.
The 23-year-old Rodríguez rode clear with Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the final five kilometres, grinding his way over the line ahead of the American, with Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) a few seconds back in third.
Their move put the yellow jersey of Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) in severe danger, but the Slovenian defended well, holding on by the skin of his teeth to take overall victory by just eight seconds from Jorgeson. Gee was third overall, 36 seconds behind the leader.
It’s the Slovenian’s second Dauphiné title after he won two years ago, but this year’s success comes only nine weeks after he was injured in a horror crash at Itzulia Basque Country in April. The result puts him in a good place ahead of the Tour de France, though his performance on the final climb will concern both him and his team.
“Looking to myself it was quite crazy to be able to win the Dauphiné with everything that happened in between, it’s beautiful. We were having all the gaps, it was tight but it went to my advantage, so perfect,” said Roglič said, making light of the closeness of his victory.
“Definitely it’s something we need with the team… and it’s crazy to be able to win Dauphiné. It was crazy with all these crashes and everything coming, a lot of things happening that we don’t want to but this is part of cycling and in the end a lot of mountains this year.”
Jorgenson has already won Paris-Nice and Dwars door Vlaanderen this year but on Sunday was unable to take enough time to outdo Roglič at Plateau des Glières. Though there was cooperation between him, Rodríguez and Gee, the American did much of the work in the final five kilometres. He appeared unable to sprint for the stage at the end, but even had he won the day the 10 bonus seconds would have left him short of the GC.
Rodríguez’s stage victory elevated him from fifth to fourth in the general classification, and while he finished 24 seconds off the overall podium the result will be a fillip to INEOS Grenadiers who closed the race with Laurens de Plus just one place behind on general classification.
“I wanted to get more from the race but in the end it was a good race,” Rodríguez said. “I’m really happy and thankful to the team who made it happen, they really sacrificed themselves, we had a plan and executed it to perfection, I’m really, really happy to finish it off.”
How it unfolded
The closing stage of this year’s Critérium du Dauphiné was always going to be another tough day in the mountains. Covering 160.6km between Thônes and Plateau des Glières, the stage climbed 3,896 vertical metres over four classified climbs, including the fifth uphill finish of the week’s racing.
Not only that, but like Saturday’s stage, the route took the riders uphill straight from the flag, prompting another aggressive start.
A group of 10 gained a small advantage early on, but when they were caught five more went clear on the slopes of the day’s first climb, the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin. That group included three riders spending a second day in the break, Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-AG2R), Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana) and Marc Soler (UAE-Emirates), who had been caught only in the final two kilometres of Saturday’s seventh stage.
They were joined by Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike), Sean Quinn (EF Education-Easypost), while Fortunato took maximum points on the climb, overtaking Roglič in the mountains classification.
Those five breakaway riders were soon joined by Tim Wellens (UAE-Emirates), Bruno Amirail (Decathlon-AG2R), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Omar Fraile (INEOS Grenadiers), Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto-Dstny) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), the latter celebrating his 31st birthday. This made for a leading group of 11, their advantage extending to 2:35 with 30km covered.
Cresting the third category Col des Esserieux first, Fortunato further extended his lead in the climber’s classification to 10 points, enough to take the jersey overall.
As the leaders tackled the early slopes of the day’s penultimate climb, the first category Le Salève, with 90km done, their gap was out to four minutes, however, when INEOS Grenadiers took up the pace on the front of the peloton that began to reduce.
At 12.2km with an average gradient of 6.8%, Le Salève was no easy climb, and Fortunato began slipping backwards, and when Soler snatched maximum points at the top the Italian was back in the bunch. Prodhomme suffered a similar fate shortly afterwards, leaving nine riders in the break with a lead of two minutes.
In the valley following the descent INEOS backed off, the gap growing again until Roglič’s Bora-Hansgrohe and Lidl-Trek came to control, slowly chipping away at the deficit, bringing it to just 40 seconds with 10km remaining.
The Col des Glières began 9.4km from the finish line, and while it flattened out in the final two kilometres, much of the climb had gradients in excess of 10%. Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike) led the peloton onto the early slopes, positioning his leader, Matteo Jorgenson who started the day in second, 1:02 behind Roglič, however, it was Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) who attacked, catching what remained of the day’s break.
Ciccone was of little threat on the GC, having started the day 2:54 down, and with that in mind, the Italian was allowed to build a slender lead, but when Laurens De Plus (INEOS Grenadiers) came to the front not only was Ciccone caught, the chasing group was reduced to just a handful of riders, including the Belgian’s teammate Carlos Rodríguez.
Just outside the final five kilometres, the former Spanish champion made his move, and while he drew out most of the GC rivals, Roglič was dropped. Just 500m later only Rodríguez, Jorgenson and Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), who started the day in second and third place respectively, were at the front, Roglič struggling to stay within touching distance.
The Slovenian ground on though, Ciccone glued to his wheel, and while his deficit increased he managed to hold on, crossing the line in sixth place, 48 seconds behind Rodríguez, close enough to take the general classification.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
