Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) won the final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné ahead of Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech).
The overall race leader Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) was distanced in the last five kilometers by his nearest rival, Matteo Jorgenson, but was able to hang on to win the overall classification by 8 seconds.
Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) took second overall at 8 seconds, followed by Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) who took third, at 36 seconds.
L-R: Matteo Jorgenson, Primož Roglič, Derek Gee
How it happened
After enduring two challenging mountain stages, the final stage presented additional difficulties with several mountain passes and over 3,600 meters of altitude gain. The race began with three climbs within the first hour, but the spotlight was on Le Salève (12.1 km at 6.8%) at the 60-kilometer mark and the concluding ascent to Plateau des Glières (9.4 km at 7.1%).
Following two consecutive stage wins, Primoz Roglic maintained a lead of 1:02″ over Matteo Jorgenson and 1:13″ over Derek Gee. The remaining competitors trailed by nearly two minutes or more behind the yellow jersey, highlighting Roglic’s dominant performance in the race.
The peloton set off from Thônes, with Marc Soler leading the charge once again after a failed attempt on Saturday. Soler initiated a leading group of eleven riders, which included Bart Lemmen (Visma | Lease a Bike), Tim Wellens (UAE Emirates), American champion Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana Qazaqstan), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R). The group’s lead over the peloton grew to four minutes, with BORA-hansgrohe allowing the gap to increase. However, at the base of Le Salève, INEOS Grenadiers took control and began to reduce the lead of the leading group, causing the peloton to thin out significantly.
By the time the riders reached the top of the Salève, the gap between the leading group and the favorites had narrowed to two minutes. Lidl-Trek also joined in the effort during the descent, supporting Giulio Ciccone in the race.
With Soler and Gaudu trailing Roglic by more than seven minutes, the breakaway group posed no threat to the general classification. The first attack came 8 kilometers from the finish, initiated by Ciccone, ranked ninth. BORA-hansgrohe maintained a relentless pace in the pursuit with Jai Hindley and Aleksandr Vlasov. Laurens De Plus then launched an attack to further thin out the favorites group. Under pressure, Remco Evenepoel was forced to let go, mirroring his struggles in previous mountain stages.
Roglic, Matteo Jorgenson, Derek Gee, Carlos Rodriguez, and Santiago Buitrago managed to keep up with De Plus, but Vlasov fell behind. De Plus caught up with Ciccone, and then Rodriguez, his teammate, launched an attack. Jorgenson quickly joined him, noticing that Roglic was having difficulty. With no teammates left to support him, Roglic couldn’t match the speed of the group.
The next acceleration came from Derek Gee, with only Jorgenson and Rodriguez able to follow him. They worked well together gaining 30″ on Roglič. Then in the last 1.5 kilometers Jorgenson pushed the pace causing Gee to lose contact, leaving only Rodriguez able to follow Jorgenson. It then became a battle for seconds against the trailing Roglic, with Jorgenson pushing the pace to the line and Rodriguez sitting on his wheel. In the final meters, Rodriguez jumped around and took the stage from an exhausted Jorgenson who ultimately fell short by a few seconds in his bid to take the GC from Roglic.
RESULTS
Stage 8: Thônes > Plateau des Glières (160.6km)
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
