Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) won the 8th and final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné today, while Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) clung on to claim the overall victory.
The 23-year-old Rodríguez rode clear with Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) during the last 5 kilometers, steadily pulling way from the American to seize the stage honors, with Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) rounded out the podium a few seconds back.
In the meantime, Roglič found himself in severe danger of losing the yellow jersey, but the Slovenian rider managed to hold on by the skin of his teeth to take overall victory by just eight seconds over Jorgeson.
Race Highlights
It wasn’t until close to the summitt of Col de la Forclaz that Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a bike), Marc Soler (UAE Emirates), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-Ag2R), Sean Quinn (EF Education-Easypost), and polka-dot jersey holder Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana) finally escped the peloton, only to be joined by Tim Wellens (UAE-Emirates), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Omar Fraile (Ineos Grenadiers), Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto Dstny) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) 25 km later.
Fortunato collects KOM points
At the top of La Forclaz, Fortunato added 10 points to his KOM tally and took two more in the follow 3rd category ascent, Col des Esserieux, to lead the best climber’s classification by 10 points at that stage. At the intermediate sprint (Km 52.7), David Gaudu was in front as the peloton was more than three minutes adrift. The gap reached a maximum of 4:00 in the valley before the Saleve climb where Fortunato and Prodhomme were dropped and at the top of which Soler was leading the way.
Roglič falters
The peloton, led by Ineos-Grenadiers, raised the tempo and the gap at the top was down to 2:05 and reached 1:40 with 50 km to go when the British team decided to drop the chase. At the bottom of the last climb, the nine leaders only held a 45-seconds advantage on the bunch controlled by Roglič s teammates and by an hyperactive Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
The break disintegrated along the climb while Quinn and Martin tried to attack. At the back, Ciccone attacked with 8 km to go, caught the escapees and forged ahead solo. But the Italian was reined in 3 km later, when Laurens de Plus took the reins, with Rodriguez on his heels.
The twofold attack left Roglič staggering, unbale to respond when the two Ineos Grenadiers went with Jorgenson, Gee and Santiago Buitrago.
The American rider worked hard with Rodriguez and Gee to increase the gap and led the way in the final stretch, only to be overtaken by Rodriguez on the line. Roglic later crossed the line 48 seconds later for a close call in GC victory.
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