Primoz Roglic won the seventh stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné. Wearing the yellow jersey, he was the strongest of the favorites in the sprint at Samoëns 1600. He also gained a lot of time on rival Remco Evenepoel, who had to drop back early on the final climb.
Due to the women's finals at the Roland Garros tennis tournament, the men had to start early on Saturday. At 10:30 AM, the flag was waved for the queen stage of 155.3 kilometers, which would take the peloton from Albertville to Samoëns 1600. It was a rainy day, but that didn't dampen the spirits for many of the attackers. After Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quick Step) had to give up due to the aftermath of Thursday's crash, the race really ignited.
Prominent names wanted to join in on the action, including Tim Wellens (UAE Emirates) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) who stirred things up early on the first-category Col des Saisies. With the climbing starting right from the outset, the back door in the peloton was immediately wide open. Aleksandr Vlasov, serving as Roglic's super domestique for BORA-hansgrohe, had to drop back (among others).
Strong breakaway gains large lead in first half of the stage
Marc Soler (UAE), Davide Formolo (Movistar), Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-AG2R) and Darren Rafferty (EF Education-Easypost) had good legs and the five men created a nice gap. Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) and Warren Barguil (DSM) managed to bridge across, and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Dorian Godon (AG2R) and Koen Bouwman (Visma | Lease a Bike) joined them with a strong effort. As a result, we had ten leaders, 2.50 minutes ahead of the peloton.
BORA-hansgrohe controlled the pack, but did so at a moderate pace for a long time. This allowed the breakaway group to extend their lead to 4.30 minutes after eighty kilometers of racing. After a two-stage descent, we arrived at the foot of the Côte d'Arâches, where Mark Donovan (Q36.5) managed to bridge across. Unlike Mathijs Paasschens (Lotto Dstny) and Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa), he joined the eleven leaders heading towards the Col de la Ramaz. Vlasov rejoined the peloton during this phase.
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Soler goes solo, can he stay ahead of the peloton?
On the Col de la Ramaz, Soler eventually went solo. Barguil seemed to keep up for a while, but the Spaniard of UAE pulled impressively away from the rest. Towards the summit, he gained 1.45 minutes, almost as if we were watching his teammate Tadej Pogacar. Fortunato, Barguil, Rafferty and Bouwman were the first four men chasing him down once we were over the top. The peloton was 5.30 minutes back with 37 kilometers to go, seemingly defeated when it comes to the stage win?
On the descent towards the very steep final climb to Samoëns 1600, Soler extended his lead to two minutes over the first men behind. The peloton, led by Roglic's men, did reduce the lead, but mainly to defend the Slovenian's yellow jersey. The favorites seemed too late to make something happen for the day's victory.
Soler collapses, Evenepoel loses even more ground
Fatigue hit Soler hard midway up the climb, as the group of favorites, led by Aleksandr Vlasov, started to accelerate. His lead was vanishing rapidly. The group of classification riders then sprinted for the victory. Roglic launched an early attack and created a gap. Jorgenson was the only one who could keep up, but he couldn't prevent the yellow jersey from securing a second stage win.
Evenepoel took a heavy hit in the GC. Just like the day before, the leader of Soudal-Quick Step didn't have the best legs on the climb. While he managed to limit the damage somewhat the previous day, he had to drop back early on the merciless final climb of Samoëns. Meaning he was nowhere near the final podium.
Results stage 7 Critérium du Dauphiné 2024
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
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