Roglic and Vingegaard share glory
June 12 th 2022 - 17:11
Jonas Vingegaard has powered to an impressive stage win at the Plateau de Solaison ahead of Primoz Roglic, who sealed his overall victory at the final summit of the 74th Critérium du Dauphiné.
The Jumbo-Visma collective had already taken a significant advantage ahead of the final stage, with the Slovenian leader wearing the yellow and blue jersey ahead of his Danish lieutenant.
They put even more emphasis to their domination with the support of the whole black and yellow train and especially Steven Kruijswijk, who smashed the GC group to pieces on the final ascent. Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) was the last rival to resist, but he couldn’t keep up with Vingegaard’s decisive acceleration 5km away from the finish.
The Australian climber rounds out the podium of the stage and the overall standings.
The final summit of the Critérium du Dauphiné is almost in sight, as the 134-rider peloton (1 non-starter: Enric Mas) roll from Saint-Alban-Leysse towards Plateau de Solaison. They immediately face the climb to Col de Plainpalais (cat.1, summit at km 8.8), where a major battle for the breakaway unfolds.
15 riders at the front
After many attacks and counter-attacks, Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-KTM) goes first over the top with the polka-dot jersey on his shoulders and 13 companions by his side : Eddie Dunbar, Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers), Matteo Fabbro (Bora-Hansgrohe), Bruno Armirail, Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ), George Bennett (UAE Team Emirates), Antonio Tiberi, Kenny Elissonde, Antwan Tolhoek (Trek-Segafredo), Simon Geschke (Cofidis), Alexis Vuillermoz (TotalEnergies), Jan Hirt (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) et Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels-KTM).
Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) makes it 15 riders at the front as he bridges the gap towards the second ascent of the day, Col de Leschaux (cat.3, km 30.8), also summited first by Rolland. Primoz Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma control the gap between 2’ and 2’30’’ on the valley leading to the final challenges of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2022.
Attackers try to fend off Jumbo-Visma
The gap is down to 1’35’’ at the bottom of the climb to the Col de la Colombière (cat.1, km 100.5). Armirail and Storer immediately accelerate and only three riders follow the Groupama-FDJ duo at the front: Dunbar, Bennett and Elissonde. The gap increases to 2’15’’ with 6km to go to the summit, but Jumbo-Visma also pick up the pace. They trail by 2’ when Armirail steps aside with 3km to go to the summit.
De Plus and Hirt join the front of the race in the last km of ascent. The gap to the bunch is down to 1’35’’ again when they dive into the downhill towards the final climb of the day.
Kruijswijk, Vingegaard, Roglic: collective dominance
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) drives the bunch on the downhill and the valley. At the bottom of the climb to Plateau de Solaison, the gap is down to 1’05’’. Steven Kruijswijk sets a brutal pace in the bunch. Bennett is the last attacker to be caught, 6.5km away from the finish. By that time, only six riders remain at the front: Kruijswijk, Vingegaard and Roglic for Jumbo-Visma, Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën), Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) and Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious).
Kruijswijk keeps pushing until Vingegaard accelerates with 5.3km to go. O’Connor tries to resist but he can’t keep up with the Jumbo-Visma duo, who collaborate at the front and share the prizes at the summit: the stage win for Vingegaard and the overall victory for Roglic. O’Connor finishes with a gap of 15’’.
Vingegaard: “Very happy and proud”
"It was quite incredible. We had planned to attack and that [Primoz Roglic] should follow me because we wanted to see if we could drop everyone. We succeeded with that so I think we can be very happy and proud of what we did. In the Ardennes classic, I didn’t have the best period but now I’m back at a really high level adnn for sure I’m really happy about it. It’s one of the biggest races in the world. To win a stage and to be second overall is great for me. To be honest, it would be hard to be 1-2 in the Tour because there will be many GC contenders. But we aim to at least have one of us win the Tour."
