Tadej Pogacar has struck again in the Critérium du Dauphiné. After Friday’s stage, Saturday’s queen stage was also a prey for the Slovenian. Jonas Vingegaard could not respond to a breakaway from Pogacar again and finished second.
The decision was made on the 16.5 kilometer long final climb to Valmeinier. A breakaway group including Sepp Kuss, Santiago Buitrago and Ben Healy rode ahead, but remained within reach of the peloton.
Romain Bardet tried it alone, but a stage win in his very last race was never really on the cards for the 34-year-old Frenchman. He was the last fugitive to be caught by the group of favorites.
Not long after that, 12 kilometers from the finish, the same scenario as Friday unfolded. Pogacar accelerated immediately, Vingegaard tried to hang on for a moment, but soon had to let the reigning Tour winner go.
Vingegaard found his own rhythm and kept the deficit limited. But he could not prevent Pogacar from celebrating victory number 98 in his career. Ultimately, Vingegaard crossed the line 14 seconds after his big rival.
White jersey wearer Florian Lipowitz, in turn, came in more than a minute after Vingegaard. The German from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe thus increased his lead over Remco Evenepoel in the youth classification. Evenepoel lost his yellow jersey to Pogacar on Friday and could not follow the other favorites on Saturday either.
Pogacar goes into Sunday’s final stage with a lead of 1.01 minutes over Vingegaard. Lipowitz is number three, 2.21 behind the man in yellow. Evenepoel is 4.11 minutes behind Pogacar and must do everything he can to reach the podium.
Sunday is therefore the eighth and final stage. The peloton must climb steeply again in the Alps. The climb to Plateau du Mont-Cenis is the final piece of this Critérium du Dauphiné.