Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) stamped his authority on the Critérium du Dauphiné, soloing to a second mountain stage win on stage 7 and extending his GC lead over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike).
The Slovenian made his move 12km from the top of the day's final climb, Valmeinier 1800, countering a move from Vingegaard's teammate Sepp Kuss as he launched clear of the GC group.
Behind, Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) gave chase as Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) battled on further back. Vingegaard himself would go solo for the final 10km of the HC-rated climb, but the Dane couldn't reel in the yellow jersey, and so he'd have to settle for another second place.
“We wanted to take control on all the climbs, but Visma tried with all the attacks. I was pretty happy with how Pavel and the team rode today. It was sort of defence, to not get attacked by everyone from Visma. So, I launched it and maintained a good pace to the top. I was really happy that I could defend the jersey like this,” Pogačar said after his stage win.
“They attacked towards the top of the Croix de Fer and then actually I think they wanted to drop me on the downhill. They went a little bit dangerous in the first kilometres of the downhill. I didn’t like that, but it’s modern cycling.
“Then Pavel came back and took over the control again and it was all fine. On the last climb, he said he couldn’t do much longer, so he prepared me for an attack. I just committed because I didn’t want any attacks from behind.
“Today Jonas was really strong, but I also didn’t want to go too deep for myself. It was a super-hot and long climb. Luckily, I had enough time to ease up in the last kilometre a little bit and recover.
“Of course, you look at the performances. You know that in the Tour they can be even stronger but also in our team we get two more climbers.”
Vingegaard crossed the line 14 seconds after Pogačar, with the gap at the top of the GC now an extended 1:01 ahead of Sunday's final stage. Lipowitz finished in third place at 1:21 down, retaining his final podium spot.
Further back, Evenepoel slipped behind Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) to finish fifth on the day, 2:39 off Pogačar.
The top four spots in the general classification are unchanged heading into Sunday's closing stage, with Pogačar now 1:01 up on Vingegaard and 2:21 up on Lipowitz.
Former race leader Evenepoel falls to a distant 4:11 in the standings in fourth place. Johannessen's impressive ride, meanwhile, sees him move up to fifth overall, 5:55 away from yellow.
How it unfolded
The penultimate stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné brought with it another slew of major mountains; this time, three hors-catégorie ascents packed into just 131.6km of racing.
The riders would barely have been able to enjoy a metre of flat roads on stage 7, with the climb of the Col de la Madeleine (24.6km at 6.2%) coming right from the very start.
After a long descent, the Col de la Croix de Fer (22.4km at 6.9%) followed, with a longer descent and a spell in the valley to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne lying ahead of the final climb to Valmeinier 1800 (16.5km at 6.7%).
Attacks flew from the very start as riders sought to get away on the uphill start of the Madeleine. Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease A Bike) was the first man to make a move, though his efforts came to nothing as he was brought back.
The Dutch team persisted in launching their men up the road, however, with Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson among the next batch of riders to make a move. Out front, Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep) were busy creating what would be the break of the day.
Kuss would make the cut, too, countering after a Jorgenson group was caught. Along with Alexey Lutsenko (Israel-Premier Tech) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), he'd catch the two French leaders.
The breakaway leads the race during stage 7 (Image credit: Getty Images)
The full break – 15 riders in all – would form by the top of the climb, with Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), stage 3 winner Iván Romeo (Movistar), Sergio Higuita (XDS-Astana), and Picnic-PostNL pairing Romain Bardet and Juan Martinez among those making the cut.
The group had made a minute on the much-reduced peloton as they crested the top of the Madeleine, with Higuita grabbing the 15 mountain points there. Their advantage would increase by 15 seconds on the downhill, and all 16 riders began the Croix de Fer together.
They'd hold their advantage on the way up, but Paret-Peintre wouldn't make it to the top with the breakaway. The Frenchman dropped back to the peloton partway up the mountain, while accelerations from Healy and Bardet near the top put paid to the hopes of several more of their breakaway companions.
Over the top, just nine remained in the break, with Guillaume Martin (Groupama-FDJ) having bridged across on the way up. However, the peloton – now a select group of GC riders led by Jorgenson – had almost shut down the gap, with 20 seconds separating the two groups at the start of the descent.
Bardet, keen to leave a mark on his final race as a professional, made a move to go clear at the front early on the way down. Behind him, the remainder of the break was absorbed by the GC men, though the Colombian trio of Buitrago, Higuita, and Martinez continued to chase in between the groups.
They were swept up well before the race reached the valley, however, but Bardet continued on alone. With the GC group of around 25 riders unbothered by his presence, he'd only gain time by the bottom of the descent, hitting the 40km mark with a 50-second lead.
Romain Bardet put in a long solo attack over the penultimate climb and into the valley below (Image credit: Getty Images)
A lengthy spell on the rising false flat of the valley, and that 16.5km final ascent still lay ahead, though. Pavel Sivakov led the way on behalf of race leader Pogačar, while Vingegaard had strength in numbers with Jorgenson, Kuss, and Ben Tulett surrounding him.
Bardet persisted at the front, leading the way over the day's intermediate sprint at the base of the climb, before starting the ascent with a 35-second lead. Behind him, Decathlon AG2R led the GC group, chipping away at his lead until his solo ride was brought to an end 13km from the top.
When the catch was made, Visma immediately countered, sending Kuss up the road before Sivakov took up the pacemaking in the group, Pogačar in his wheel. Kuss's move would only last a kilometre before the UAE duo dragged him back, though.
Once the American was in the clutches of the group, Pogačar sensed his chance, accelerating at the front and leaving the rest behind in a bid for his second stage win in as many days.
The group behind exploded, with Vingegaard and Lipowitz setting in as the second group on the road 10 seconds down, while Evenepoel and Johannessen lay 30 seconds back.
As the final 10km beckoned, Vingegaard went solo in the chase, dropping Lipowitz. The Dane couldn't make up time on his grand rival, however, instead shedding seconds to Pogačar as they raced towards the summit.
At 7km to go, he lay 20 seconds down, with Lipowitz at 40 seconds, and Evenepoel just over a minute back. He'd limit his losses from there, though, despite the riders further down the road losing more and more time to Pogačar.
From there, as the riders raced into the final 5km of the climb and the stage, there was no major drama and no big changes at the front. Vingegaard battled to limit the time lost, holding the gap at 20 seconds until a late surge to the line saw him gain time after Pogačar's victory celebrations.
It was win number three of the race for the maillot jaune, his 10th of the season, and he now looks all set to add the overall title to his palmarès.
Tadej Pogačar on the attack on stage 7 with Jonas Vingegaard left trailing behind (Image credit: Getty Images)
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, she had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including Cycling Weekly and Rouleur.
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