Van Baarle wins, Fuglsang is the champion in Champéry
June 16 th 2019 - 17:15
The last stage of the 71st Critérium du Dauphiné went to Dylan van Baarle (Team Ineos) throughout a breakaway from far out. The Dutchman beat Australia’s Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) whose team-mate and former race leader Adam Yates pulled out as many riders got sick the day after they faced very difficult stormy conditions. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) won his second Dauphiné after 2017 meanwhile Tejay van Garderen (EF Education) and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) rounded out the final podium.
13 riders in the lead, including Alaphilippe
115 riders have taken the start in Cluses. 8 non-starters: Darwin Atapuma and Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), Michael Woods and Alberto Bettiol (EF), Pierre Rolland and Cyril Gautier (Vital Concept), Thomas Degand (Wanty) and Casper Pedersen (Sunweb). 12 riders took off at km 12: Dylan van Baarle (Ineos), Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe), Carlos Verona (Movistar), Sébastien Reichenbach (Groupama-FDJ), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), Carl Fredrik Hagen (Lotto-Soudal), Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida), Alessandro De Marchi (CCC) and Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic). Alaphilippe secured the white and blue polka dot jersey in the first two climbs of the day and Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin) made it across by himself to increase the number of escapees to 13 at Les Gets, km 20.
Adam Yates pulls out
Alaphilippe kept on scoring KOM points as he passed first at col du Corbier (cat. 1, km 49), 3’45’’ before the peloton led by Astana after a time difference of 4’05’’ was recorded at the bottom of the climb. The maximum time gap was 4’25’’ before runner up Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) pulled out due to sickness with 50km to go. He was the fourth of the twelve pre-race favorites to call it a race after Chris Froome, Tom Dumoulin and Woods. 30km before the end, different teams seized the reins of the peloton, successively UAE Team Emirates, AG2R-La Mondiale and Ineos. A few attacks took place in the front group in the cat. 1 côte des Rives. Haig went solo and formed a leading duo with Van Baarle 15km before the end.
Second stage win for Ineos after Froome’s accident
Eventually, no attack took place in the yellow-blue jersey group and Astana was back at the helm in the last climb to Champéry. Haig and Van Baarle forged on. Van Baarle won stage 8, making it a double for Team Ineos on the final weekend of the Dauphiné after Wout Poels won the queen stage at Les Sept Laux-Pipay. It’s his second victory of the 2019 season after the overall classification of the Herald Sun Tour in Australia in February. Fuglsang came home safely to win his second Critérium du Dauphiné after 2017. The Danish winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège this year is in the form of his life ahead of the Tour de France.
