Primož Roglič took control of the Critérium du Dauphiné on stage six by taking a stage win and the race leader’s yellow jersey in the high mountains which was also his first individual victory since joining Bora-Hansgrohe.
The Slovenian appeared to be back to his best since his winter move to the German team from Visma-Lease a Bike, and launched a trademark powerful sprint in the final kilometre of the mountain stage which comfortably dispatched Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) from the back wheel of his Specialized Tarmac.
Roglič’s win was partly down to sterling work from his teammate, Aleksandr Vlasov, who tracked an attack from Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) before Ciccone, Roglič and a select group of other riders, including Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), joined them. Vlasov then set a blistering pace to tee up his team leader and reduced the group to just the two Bora riders and Ciccone.
Once Roglič took flight, there would be no stopping him and the 34-year-old comfortably took his 81st career victory. Evenepoel crossed the line in eighth, 42 seconds back on the stage winner, which meant that Roglič now holds a 19 second lead on the Quick-Step man.
After being caught up in the huge crash on stage five, Roglič said at the finish that he had hurt his shoulder in the fall and was in discomfort throughout Friday’s stage.
“I’m quite limited with the left shoulder actually,” he said. “I couldn’t reach in my [jersey] pocket or anything… the legs were working so about both legs, I cannot complain.”
“Finally I won a race, it’s been a while,” he added. “The whole team, the guys showed commitment from the very start, from day one. And then chasing on the second stage, it didn’t work out. Yesterday hit us quite hard, all of us, but today again they showed a great performance so a big thanks to them, we can enjoy today.”
More to come…
Results
Critérium du Dauphiné 2024, stage six: Hauterives > Le Collet d’Allevard (173km)
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General classification after stage six
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