Primož Roglič managed to survive late-stage attacks by his closest rivals in the general classification to hold on to his lead - barely - and win the Critérium du Dauphiné for the second time in his career on Sunday. He claimed the overall by a slim eight seconds on Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease A Bike), the smallest advantage since 2001 when Christophe Moreau won by one second over Pavel Tonkov.
Going into the final day's racing, another arduous mountain trek after the Queen Stage, Roglič had a seemingly unassailable margin of 1:02 seconds on Jorgenson, and 1:13 on Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech). But it almost came undone on the final ascent of the ascent of Col des Glières (9.4km at 7.1%) with some steep pitches exceeding 10%.
The Slovenian was distanced in the final five kilometres after Jorgenson and Gee followed an attack from former Spanish champion Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers). An acceleration that Roglič simply could not follow as he watched the trio pull away from him, forcing him to continue to claw his way up and try to limit the damage.
The distance to the leaders continued to increase but Roglič went ‘all in’ as the road flattened out slightly in the final two kilometres and crossed the finish line 48 seconds behind stage winner Rodríguez, and runner-up Jorgenson.
“I was hearing all the gaps [from his DS] all the time. I was happy that the others didn’t go faster. I was just tired. It was close but finally, I’m satisfied for the team.” Roglič said.
This time around the Slovenian’s overall victory was completely different from his first in 2022. Two years ago, Roglič and his then Jumbo-Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard rode away together to claim the final stage, and win the overall with 1:41 margin over his closest non-teammate rival in third place.
This year, not only did Roglič come to the Tour de France warm-up race with a new team, Bora-Hansgrohe, but he was returning to racing after being injured in a terrible crash at Itzulia Basque Country in April.
History seemed to be repeating itself when Roglič went down in the mass crash that caused the neutralisation of stage 5. But after undergoing assessment from his team's medical staff, he not only started the following day but powered away to claim the mountain-top stage win and take over the yellow leader’s jersey.
“It’s crazy to be able to win the Dauphiné after everything that happened, the crash and everything that came in between. It’s incredible.”
Not only was the eight-day stage race an opportunity to test his form, but it was also an important test for his team. After all, they had only raced together 14 days before the start last weekend. Bora-Hansgrohe also won the best team classification, with over seven minutes on Ineos Grenadiers.
“It’s definitely something we needed with the team, to work on the positioning, the communication, many things. I haven’t been with these guys for five years.”
Roglič was his usual stoic self when asked if the victory boosted his confidence for the Tour de France.
“Now the Dauphiné is one thing and the Tour is another. I first want to be happy because you don’t win a race like this every day.”
“For sure, you take everything that you get at the end or you have to take,” Roglič told FloBikes and other reporters at the finish line when asked if he would take third place on the Tour de France today if offered the chance.
“But still at the beginning, everyone has the same possibilities. To win it or be second, third or whatever position, So first of all, we have to be happy with the whole team we did a really nice race. Great job. We have to enjoy it. And then just going to the Tour and being relaxed.”
