After a hard-fought day in the mountains, Carlos Rodríguez emerged victorious on the final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné atop the Plateau des Glières. The Ineos Grenadiers rider attacked on the final climb after a hard turn on the front from his teammate Laurens De Plus and went away with Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) in the finale, distancing the overall race leader Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe).
With all of them in search of time in the general classification, they worked well together to extend their gap over the maillot jaune. Gee survived for as long as he could, but was unable to hold the wheel of the other two riders, meaning that it would come down to a two-man sprint in the final few hundred metres.
Jorgenson, who sat in second place in the general classification at the start of the day, went to the front in the final kilometre to try to gain as much time as possible on Roglič. Rodríguez then seized his opportunity to come around the American rider to take the victory, as Jorgenson had nothing left to contest the stage win.
Behind, Roglič had just done enough to hang on for the overall victory, with the gap between him and Jorgenson coming down to just eight seconds once bonus seconds for the stage were taken into account.
Speaking in his post-race interview, Roglič reflected on the week as a whole, as he said “looking to myself, it has been quite crazy. To be able to win the Dauphiné with all of the things that happened in between, it’s beautiful”.
On whether he was suffering on the stage, he went on to say “I have been for the last three days, so it’s definitely something we needed as a team”.
When asked on how he is feeling ahead of the Tour de France, he replied “one is the Dauphiné, the other is the Tour. First of all I just want to be happy and really enjoy the moment, because it is not every day that you win races like this”.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Several teams were interested in getting up the road at the start of the day, as a breakaway of eleven riders formed on the first categorised climb of the day. Included in that group were Marc Soler and Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates), Bruno Armirail and Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Omar Fraile (Ineos Grenadiers), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Eduardo Sepúlveda (Lotto Dstny), Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) and Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana Qazaqstan).
Fortunato took maximum points on the first two climbs of the day to move into the lead of the mountains classification ahead of Primož Roglič, which he would hang on to for the rest of the stage to take the maillot à pois.
The breakaway worked well together, but they were never allowed much more than four minutes of an advantage by the peloton. However, after a long valley the riders hit the slopes of Le Salève and the gap to those at the head of the race immediately began to come down. Some in the front group then began to struggle, with Fortunato the first to be dropped along with Prodhomme a few kilometres later, and it was not long before they were caught by the peloton.
Soler took the maximum points over the top of Le Salève, but with 50km to go their gap had been brought down to under two minutes and some in the group almost looked resigned to the fact that they would be caught.
As they arrived at the foot of the final climb to Plateau des Glières, Bora-Hansgrohe had come to the front of the peloton, with Visma-Lease a Bike and Ineos Grenadiers in good position in the bunch. The gap to the breakaway had been brought down to under thirty seconds and one-by-one they were being caught by the peloton.
An attack by Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) with around 8km to go saw the last of the breakaway riders caught as the action main group really began to start. The Italian looked to extend his advantage as Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) continued to set the tempo in the peloton in service of Roglič.
The gap sat at around fifteen seconds when Laurens De Plus began to increase the pace at the front of the group ahead of an impending Carlos Rodríguez attack. The pace set by the Belgian quickly saw Ciccone caught and was too much for the likes of Hindley and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) also distanced as the selection began to be made.
Rodríguez then made his move with just over 5km to go, with Matteo Jorgenson immediately on the Spaniard’s wheel, whilst Derek Gee waited before bridging across. Roglič was unable to follow and was clearly under pressure from those at the head of the race.
The trio at the front worked together to try and build a sizeable gap over the Slovenian, with Jorgenson doing the majority of the work as he stood to gain. Gee and Rodríguez also worked well, as they were interested in the stage win and if those behind them continued to crack then the time taken could be valuable in terms of the general classification.
Gee then began to lose the wheel with 1.5km to go and it looked like it would be a two-man battle to the finish for the stage win, but Jorgenson continued to press on in the hopes that he could snatch away the maillot jaune from Roglič, who was continuing to gradually concede time.
As they reached the final few hundred metres, it was clear that Jorgenson had nothing left after all of his efforts and Rodríguez came around him fairly easily to take the stage win. Gee limited his losses to just a handful of seconds to secure his place on the final podium, but the attention immediately shifted to Roglič further down the road, as he gave everything that he had left in reserve to power to the line and seal the overall victory by eight seconds.
RESULTS: CRITÉRIUM DU DAUPHINÉ 2024, STAGE EIGHT, THÔNES > PLATEAU DES GLIÈRES (161KM)
1. Carlos Rodriguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, in 4:18:02
2. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, at same time
3. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech, +15s
4. Laurens De Plus (Bel) Ineos Grenadiers, +35s
5. Santiago Buitrago (Col) Bahrain Victorious, at same time
6. Primož Roglič (Slo) Bora-Hansgrohe, +48s
7. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, at same time
8. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +58s
9. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Bora-Hansgrohe, at same time
10. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal Quick-Step, +1:10
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE EIGHT
1. Primož Roglič (Slo) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 25:35:40
2. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +8s
3. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech, +36s
4. Carlos Rodriguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, +1:00
5. Laurens De Plus (Bel) Ineos Grenadiers, +2:04
6. Aleksandr Vlasov Bora-Hansgrohe, +2:06
7. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +2:25
8. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +2:54
9. Oier Lazkano (Esp) Movistar, at same time
10. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal Quick-Step, +4:13
