Primož Roglič won his second Critérium du Dauphiné overall title but not without a fight, once again struggling on the last important day in a French WorldTour stage race. With INEOS riding hard the whole day for Carlos Rodriguez, Stage 8 became the most open battle for the GC this week.
It was the third consecutive mountain top finish day in Dauphiné. Primož Roglič won on Le Collet d’Allevard and Samoëns 1600 and was a favourite to win again on Stage 8. Col de Glières (6.86 km, 9.04%) has some really steep sections and it would be perfect for attacks in the GC group. INEOS paced the climbs and made the race selective even before the final 10 kilometres as their leader Carlos Rodriguez seems suited to hard days. Santiago Buitrago spent 3,178 kilojoules for 3:54h before the last climb, which is 14.03 kj/kg/h. But the race was hard on the Le Saleve climb, where the peloton averaged 5.8 ᵉW/Kg for 32 minutes, which seemed to create more fatigue than the penultimate climb of Ramaz yesterday.
As the climb was steep from the start, Giulio Ciccone attacked early on the 14% section. Bora-Hansgrohe was not doing so well as Jai Hindley’s tempo in the GC group was too slow to catch Ciccone, so Rodriguez’ teammate Laurens De Plus accelerated with 6 km to go. Ciccone was caught shortly after. INEOS’ plan continued with Carlos Rodriguez attacking, which made Primož Roglič suffer, opening a small gap. Matteo Jorgenson and Derek Gee were the closest riders in the GC to Roglič and both worked hard to increase the lead over the Slovenian. Roglič was suffering alone with Ciccone on his wheel, while his teammate Vlasov was in the group with Lazkano and Evenepoel 10 seconds behind him.
Rodriguez and Jorgenson did Plateau des Glières – Col du Collet in 20:12 min, averaging 6.55 ᵉW/Kg. Gee was in the leading trio but drafted more and pushed 6.52 ᵉW/Kg. Roglič lost 29 seconds on the climb with 6.41 ᵉW/Kg, while Remco Evenepoel felt better today and pushed 6.36 ᵉW/Kg for 20:53 min. This was another hard stage, finishing with a third consecutive all-out effort on tired legs.
After a small descent, Gee dropped in the final from the first group, while Jorgenson did his best to increase the lead over Roglič. Rodriguez drafted more and finished first, while everyone was waiting for Roglič who barely kept the GC lead, losing 19 seconds in the last two kilometres and winning the GC by a mere 8-second margin. Gee finished 3rd in the GC after a fantastic performance and a stage win with a late attack, while INEOS got rewarded with their performance as Rodriguez and De Plus were 4th and 5th in the GC.
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