Today, the riders faced another challenging day of climbing in the final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné. The stage included six climbs, including a difficult ascent to La Bastille with an average gradient of 14%. The contenders for the general classification were aiming to gain precious time on each other.
In the early stages, there were multiple attempts to form a breakaway group. Riders like Richard Carapaz, Julian Alaphilippe, Giulio Ciccone, and Attila Valter all showed their intent. Victor Campenaerts, the king of the mountains, led a group of nine riders in his pursuit of securing the jersey. The peloton, aware of the threat, kept a close watch on this group since Alaphilippe was only 3 minutes and 48 seconds behind the race leader, Jonas Vingegaard.
At one point, Campenaerts briefly became the virtual race leader before reaching the foot of the Col du Granier. However, the breakaway group soon started attacking each other, revealing the strongest climbers among them. As the peloton behind them lost riders, the gap to the breakaway decreased to just a minute.
On the Col du Porte, there were several attacks, and Ciccone emerged as the strongest rider, venturing off on his own. Meanwhile, Adam Yates launched an attack and could only be followed by Vingegaard. As they descended and approached the bottom of the final, incredibly steep climb to the finish, Ciccone maintained his lead and secured an impressive stage victory. Vingegaard managed to drop Yates and crossed the finish line in second place, securing his overall victory in the general classification. Yates claimed second place on the podium, with Ben O’Connor finishing in third.
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