Froome wins finale and overall title at Critérium du Dauphiné

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Chris Froome (Sky) claimed his second win in as many days at the Critérium du Dauphiné to snatch overall victory away from Tejay van Garderen (BMC) on the final stage to Modane Valfréjus.

Van Garderen began the day in the yellow jersey with an 18-second lead over Froome and he stuck tightly to the Sky man on the lower slopes of the final haul to the line in anticipation of his inevitable attack.

When it eventually came, with a little over 2.5 kilometres remaining, it felt almost like a rerun of the previous day’s finale at Saint-Gervais. Wouter Poels once again laid the groundwork for Froome with an impressive stint of pace-making that whittled down the yellow jersey group, and only van Garderen could put up any initial resistance to the acceleration as they swept past earlier attacker Stephen Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka).

Fatally, Van Garderen was never quite able to make contact with Froome’s wheel, and although he stalked him at a remove of just 75 metres or so for almost a kilometre, he eventually yielded on the upper slopes.

As a seated Froome forged clear while spinning his legs at an improbable cadence, van Garderen was joined by Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and the hugely impressive Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) but they were losing ground all the way.

Froome pointed to his jersey as he crossed the line, already confident the ten-second time bonus for the stage win would help to overall honours as well. Van Garderen came home exactly 18 seconds later, in fourth place behind Yates and Rui Costa. For the second time in three years, the Critérium du Dauphiné is Froome’s. For the fourth time in five years, the race belongs to Team Sky.

“I can’t believe it. I couldn’t have expected it to go any better,” Froome said as he warmed down ahead of the podium ceremony. "The legs were tired and the team was suffering from their work yesterday, I don’t know how they did it, but they lifted themselves because the yellow jersey was in sight.”

Van Garderen had to settle for second place overall, ten seconds down on Froome, while Rui Costa – cycling’s Mr. June, who has won the Tour de Suisse in each of the past three years – helped himself to third place overall, 1:16 down, after Benat Intxausti (Movistar) lost ground on the final climb.

The defiant Simon Yates, meanwhile, won out in his private duel with Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) for the white jersey of best young rider and helped himself to 5th overall in the process, just 1:33 down. The 22-year-old again raced with an utter lack of inhibition, jumping away from some illustrious company in the finale and he will be one to watch as he lines up for his second Tour de France appearance next month.

Tony Martin’s cameo

As on Saturday, there were no fewer than six classified climbs on the route of the Dauphiné’s final stage, though the terrain was, by and large, rather less intimidating. The early exchanges were animated by a 13-man breakaway group triggered by Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo), though their unity was shattered when Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) powered away from them on the descent of the third climb, the Côte de Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières, with 75 kilometres still to race.

The German was bidding to replicate his remarkable solo victory on similar terrain in the Vosges at last year’s Tour de France and he approached the 17 hairpin bends of the Lacets de Montvernier with a lead of a 1:30 over his erstwhile companions and some four minutes over the main peloton, which was being led by Team Sky.

Although Martin maintained much of that advantage on the short but spectacular climb, he began to pay for his efforts on the seemingly interminable false flat that led the day’s final two climbs, the relatively gentle Côte de Saint-André and the more demanding 8.4km haul to the finish at Modane. He was eventually caught by the survivors of the break on the Saint-André, where Cummings launched a canny attack of his own, while Philip Deignan put in a huge stint at the head of the yellow jersey group in support of Froome.

By the base of the final climb, Cummings was 1:20 clear of a dwindling peloton but his advantage began to dissolve when Vincenzo Nibali put in a long, long turn on the front in support of his Astana teammate Michele Scarponi’s ambitions to win the stage.

Scarponi’s attack with 5.5 kilometres to go never looked like a race-winning one, but it did force something of a selection as van Garderen lost Rohan Dennis, his final accompanying teammate. Froome, by contrast, still had Wouter Poels, and the Dutchman’s tempo in the last five kilometres reduced the yellow jersey group to an elite few – Froome, van Garderen, Bardet, Yates, Rui Costa, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Scarponi and Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) – and all but snuffed out Cummings’ hopes of the stage win.

When he swung off, Froome took over, and despite van Garderen’s stout resistance, overall honours eventually fell to the Sky man, who has restated his Tour de France credentials this weekend after a mixed opening to the season. “Up until now I’ve just been looking to the end of the Dauphiné,” he said. “Of course the Tour de France is the big objective, and I’m almost ready.”

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