Critérium du Dauphiné

The riders had to overcome three massive ascents Saturday afternoon at the penultimate World Tour stage race of the year – Col de la Madeleine, Col de la Croix de Fer and Valmeinier 1800, and the first of these was climbed right from the start. Among those to try something was also Soudal Quick-Step’s Valentin Paret-Peintre, who went with another rider and opened a 40-second gap before being joined by a large chasing group.

As their margin didn’t exceed two minutes at any point during the stage, the peloton had an easy mission when it came to bringing them back, which they did on the second climb, where the main favourites’ group was reduced to just ten riders after a sudden change of tempo at the front. In the Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne valley, where more than 2000 years ago Hannibal led his army consisting of more than 100 000 soldiers and 37 elephants as he crossed the Alps, more riders joined that small bunch, which arrived together at the bottom of Valmeinier, trailing the last survivor of the breakaway by 40 seconds.

The fight for victory was ignited more than ten kilometers from the line, when Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) attacked and put some daylight into his opponents. Evenepoel once again adopted his usual steady pacing strategy, just like on the previous day, riding tempo and not blowing pace. It was a strategy that helped Soudal Quick-Step’s leader conclude the stage in fifth – a result that helped him cement his fourth place in the general classification of this 77th Critérium du Dauphiné.

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