Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) cemented his overall lead at the Critérium du Dauphiné with a second consecutive stage victory on Saturday.
The Slovenian, who took the leader’s yellow jersey after winning Friday’s sixth stage, sprinted from a small group to win stage seven at the Samoëns 1600 ski resort, crossing the line just ahead of Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Leaase a bike). After finishing second on Friday, Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) was third, two seconds back.
Roglič was served well by his Bora-Hansgrohe team throughout the 155.3km stage. The team allowed breakaway rider, Marc Soler (UAE-Emirates) to take the virtual lead, before closing the Spaniard down only with two kilometres to go.
Roglič will start Sunday’s final stage with a lead of 1:02 on Jorgenson, with Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) a further 11 seconds down. Remco Evenepoeol (Soudal-Quickstep) who began the day second overall lost time on the final climb and slipped out of the top five overall.
For much of the closing 40 kilometres, it had seemed Soler would take the stage after he attacked on the day’s penultimate climb, building a lead of more than five minutes on the bunch and taking the virtual GC lead. However, Bora-Hansgrohe went to work on the flat lead into the final climb, turning the screw while Soler tired on the brutal slopes.
“It probably also seems easier than it was,” said Roglič. “It was a hard day but really the guys did an amazing job having everything under control from the very start 'til the finish so I’m glad I had the legs at the end to finish it off.
“At the end why not uh? There was the opportunity and just because the guys did an incredible job, I mean we all still feel the crash and then putting all these hard days in the legs, for sure nobody feels better, but with the commitment and the work that they put in, it’s another day that we can celebrate and be happy.
“I will say the priority, first things first let’s try to finish tomorrow on two wheels, we do our best and we see what happens in the end.”
How it unfolded
The 155.3km stage starting in Albertville was the fourth uphill finish of five at this year’s Dauphiné, and was the toughest of the eight stages, with 4,316m metres of climbing. This consisted of three first-category climbs, the coup de grâce coming in the form of the Hors Categorie ascent to the finish line at Samoëns 1600.
Only 122 of the original 154 riders began Saturday’s stage, rolling immediately uphill, the prelude for the Col des Saisies, the first classified climb. Within the opening 5km Remco Evenepoul (Soudal-Quickstep), who had ceded the overall lead after stage six, lost one of his key climbing lieutenants, Ilan Van Wilder succumbing to injuries sustained in Thursday’s mass crash.
Also suffering was Latvian road champion, Emīls Liepiņš (dsm-firmenech PostNL), who eventually joined the young Belgian, the second of many to call it a day during the stage. Indeed, only 109 riders finished what was a brutal day.
At the front the racing was in full flight, with a huge battle to get in the day’s breakaway, Tim Wellens UAE Team Emirates) chief among the protagonists, and briefly up the road alone.
Eventually, after some 20km of action, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Davide Formolo (Movistar) and Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana) got away and were soon joined by Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-AG2R) and Darren Raffery (EF Education-Easypost), the five riders building a lead of more than two minutes on the bunch.
Between the leading quintet and the peloton, several other riders were doggedly attempting to reach the front, and just before the top of the Col des Saisies the leaders were joined by Kevin Giniets (Groupama-FDJ), Warren Barguil (dsm-firmenech PostNL), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Koen Bowman (Visma-Lease a bike) and Dorian Godon, the latter joining teammate Prodhomme to make two Decathlon-AG2R riders among leading group of 10.
Fortunato took maximum mountains points at the summit of the Col des Saisies, with Barguil just behind and Soler third, while their advantage extended to 2:50.
With 50km done, the 10 leaders had extended their gap to well over three minutes on the peloton, while behind Mathijs Paasschens (Lotto-Dstny), Mark Donovan (Q36.5) and King of the Mountains leader Mathis Le Berre (Arkea-B&B Hotels) chased. However, only British rider, Donovan would make it to the front, reaching the leaders after 92km, a few kilometres after the first category Côte d’Araches, where Fortunato once again took maximum mountains points.
As the race reached the slopes of the Col de la Ramaz the breakaway led the race by 4:09 making Soler the virtual overall race leader, having started only 3:45 behind yellow jersey, Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe). But the Ramaz took its toll, Donovan dropping first and Martin soon afterwards.
While in the peloton Roglič’s squad managed the gap, up front the breakaway began attacking each other. First Barguil headed up the road, splitting the group, but this move served only to tempt Soler to go it alone, 45km from the line and more than half the 14km climb still ahead.
While Barguil went backwards, Soler extended his advantage on the peloton to more than five minutes, the Spanish rider cresting the day’s penultimate climb with a lead of 5:28.
Despite appearing to suffer into a slight headwind on the flat lead into the day’s final climb, Soler’s lead on what remained of the breakaway increased to more than two minutes, though Roglič’s team had reduced their deficit to just 4:22 as the road finally began to rear up.
The ascent to the finish at the ski resort of Samoëns 1600 was a brutal one, almost 10km at an average gradient of 9%, and on the lower slopes, Fortunato set off in pursuit, though failed to make a dent in Soler’s advantage.
As the climb progressed Bora-Hansgrohe were in complete control, first extinguishing Roglič’s GC deficit, before, then one-by-one catching all but Soler and dispatching Evenepoel, stage four time trial winner, who was dropped.
Soler’s suffering was complete, and as he passed the 5km he began looking back, hope seeping away, his lead eroded to less than two minutes. With Aleksandr Vlasov doing much of the damage on Roglič’s behalf, Soler was finally caught just two kilometres out.
Inside the final kilometre, Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) kicked off the action in the front group, but Roglič was patient and untouchable.
Sunday’s final stage is sure to be another difficult day, with yet another mountain-top finish to close the race. The peloton will tackle 160.6km between Thônes and Plateau des Glières, ascending a total of 3,751m over four classified climbs.
Results
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