Roglic set for Dauphine glory after back-to-back stage wins
PRIMOZ Roglic made it back-to-back wins on stage seven of the Criterium du Dauphine to increase his overall lead heading into the final stage.
The Bora–Hansgrohe rider took the yellow jersey from Remco Evenepoel on Friday and is now 62 seconds clear after winning the summit finish at Samoens 1600.
Both were involved in the large crash that led to stage five being neutralised on Thursday, but Evenepoel appears to have come off worst.
The Soudal Quick-Step rider again struggled on the queen stage of this year’s race, losing nearly two minutes to Roglic, and the 24-year-old Belgian slipped to sixth in the general classification standings.
Slovenian Roglic, 34, crossed the line before America’s Matteo Jorgenson, who has moved into second place overall, with Canada’s Derek Gee going third in the GC.
Saturday’s 155.3km route from Albertville featured three category one climbs before finishing with a 10km climb that had an average gradient of 9.3%.
Marc Soler started the day nearly four minutes off Roglic and broke away to lead the peloton by more than five minutes at one point.
The Spaniard was still leading when, 3km into the final climb, Evenepoel was dropped after the steepest section of 12.3%.
Soler was then caught 2km from the finish and although Oier Lazkano hit the front as the line approached, Roglic timed his attack perfectly to cross first with Jorgenson in hot pursuit.
Lidl-Trek’s Tao Geoghegan Hart was one of several riders to withdraw either before or during Saturday’s stage - the British rider still suffering with his injuries from Thursday’s crash.