Roglic one class above
June 8 th 2024 - 15:16
Primoz Roglic was definitely too strong for his rivals in the “queen stage”of the 76th Criterium du Dauphiné, surging in the final stretch to win his second mountain stage in succession at the top of Samoens 1,600 on Saturday. Despite a brave solo attempt by Spaniard Marc Soler (UAE), who was caught with 2 km to go in this 155.3-km rider from Albertville, the big guns were left to battle it out in the last kilometre and the Bora-Hansgrohe leader shot the last bullet. On the line, he beat American Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a bike), who took the white jersey over from struggling Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) while green jersey holder Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) was third. Overall, the Slovenian leads Jorgenson by 1:02 with stage 4 winner Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) third, 1:13 off the pace.
Ten riders lead the way on Les Saisies
The real start was given at 10:29 to 122 riders. Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Anders Skaarseth (Uno-X), Logan Currie (Lotto Dstny), Clement Russo (Groupama-FDJ), Hugo Toumire (Cofidis), Christophe Juul Jensen and Blake Quick (Jayco AlUla) and Abner Umba (Astana) did not start. The stage kicked off to a fast start, which saw several attempts involving former stage winners like Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) or Magnus Cort (Uno-X) or KOM leader Mathis Le Berre (Arkea) while led Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quick Step) was forced to call it quits. In the first category Col des Saisies, five riders broke clear. They were Marc Soler (UAE), Davide Formolo (Movistar), Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-AG2R) and Darren Rafferty (EF Education-Easypost). They were joined by Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) and Warren Barguil (DSM) at kilometre 31, by Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Koen Bouwman (Visma-Lease a bike) at the top of Col des Saisies (Km 33.5) and by Dorian Godon (Decathlon-Ag2R) in the descent. Fortunato was first at the top, ahead of Barguil.
Soler goes solo
As several more riders, including Neilson Powless (EF Education) and Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea), also called it quits, the peloton was 3:00 behind on the road to Megève while KOM leader Le Berre, Mathijs Paasschens (Lotto Dstny) and Mark Donovan (Q36.5) were less than a minute adrift. Only Donovan managed to make it back on the front in the descent of Cote d'Arâches (km 92), on which Fortunato collected 10 more points. In Cote de la Ramaz, as Soler upped the tempo, Donovan and Martin were dropped by the leading group. Eight kilometres from the summit, Marc Soler decided to go for it, first with Barguil, then on his own. The Spaniard, 3:45 adrift overall at the start, reached the top of La Ramaz with a lead of 1:30 over his former companions Fortunato, Barguil, Rafferty, Bouwman, Formolo and Prodhomme and 5:30 over the peloton.
Soler caught
Soler held a two-minutes lead over his nearest rivals at the foot of the last climb and while the battle for the stage win was over, the GC battle started in the final ascent. With 7 km to go, white jersey holder Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) was dropped by the peloton, along with Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) or Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), who lost ground earlier. In the last five kilometres, the peloton reined in all the escapees, except Soler, who retained a two-minute lead. But the 2018 Paris-Nice winner faltered and was finally caught with 2 km to go by Primoz Roglic, Alekzander Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a bike), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl Trek), Oier Lazkano and Javier Romo (Movistar), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain), Mikel Landa (Soudal-Quick Step), Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), Laurens De Plus and Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers). In the final stretch, Spanish champion Lazkano was the first to attack but he was immediately countered by Matteo Jorgenson and by Primoz Roglic, who overtook the American to clinch his second stage victory in two days and strengthen his overall lead on the eve of the final stage to Plateau des Glieres.
