Jakob Fuglsang adds Denmark on the record book of the Dauphiné
June 12 th 2017 - 11:50
Jakob Fuglsang of Astana became the first Dane to win the overall classification of the Critérium du Dauphiné as he dethroned race leader Richie Porte throughout the ten seconds bonus awarded to the winner of the conclusive stage. This is the third time in the past four editions that there is a change of leadership on the last day. It's been a thrilling finale again!
Tony Gallopin a lone leader at col des Saisies
149 riders took the start of stage 8 of the 69th Critérium du Dauphiné. Two non-starters: former race leader Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) because of a wrist's inflammation and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis). A group of 24 riders went clear at km 13 just before they started climbing to col des Saisies: David Lopez (Sky), Pierre Latour (AG2R-La Mondiale), Petr Vakoc (Quick-Step Floors), Michael Gogl (Trek-Segafredo), Richard Carapaz and Jesus Herrada (Movistar), Esteban Chaves and Roman Kreuziger (Orica-Scott), Alexei Lutsenko (Astana), Antwan Tolhoek (LottoNL-Jumbo), Dani Navarro (Cofidis), Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Warren Barguil and Lennard Hofstede (Sunweb), Grega Bole (Bahrain-Merida), Simon Clarke and Dylan Van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac), Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie), Edvald Boasson Hagen and Ben O'Connor (Dimension Data), Vegard Stake Laengen and Ben Swift (UAE Team Emirates) and Christoph Pfingsten (Bora-Hansgrohe). One of them remained in the lead in the first climb of the day: Gallopin. The Frenchman crested the col des Saisies with an advantage of 50 seconds over the yellow-blue jersey.
Valverde and Aru at La Colombière
Gallopin was reeled in at the exit of La Clusaz in the downhill following the col des Aravis as Chris Froome (Sky) sped up again after he tried to put race leader Richie Porte (BMC) in trouble in the second climb of the day as much as in the first one. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) rode away at km 70. He was quickly rejoined by Fabio Aru (Astana). The duo crested the col de la Colombière with an advantage of a bit more than one minute over Froome who attacked Porte just before the summit and continued to speed up and distance his rival in the downhill. Froome and Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky), Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale), Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors), Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo), Simon Yates (Orica-Scott), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Rafael Valls (Lotto-Soudal), Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac), Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) rejoined Aru and Valverde with 10km to go in the final uphill.
Fuglsang alone in the last 5km
Martin attacked with 7km to go. Fuglsang bridged the gap quickly and went solo 5km before the end. It was a thrilling duel between Fuglsang and Porte as the two men were separated by 1.15 on GC and the difference on the road was just over one minute up the final climb to Plateau de Solaison. It was no longer a fight between Froome and Porte as the yellow-blue jersey holder rejoined and dropped his former team captain at Sky. The Australian missed out on the Dauphiné overall victory but showed his physical superiority over Froome and Contador, his other former team captain at Saxo Bank, ahead of the Tour de France while Dan Martin finished third for the second straight year. The 69th Critérium du Dauphiné will leave an important footprint in the history of cycling.