Tadej Pogacar seals Critérium du Dauphiné title as Lenny Martinez wins stage 8

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) claimed the 99th victory of his professional career as he sealed the general classification at the Critérium du Dauphiné, after managing attacks from both Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).

Meanwhile, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) claimed the stage honours after being the strongest rider in the day’s breakaway. He went solo with just under 8km remaining and didn’t look back as he would take an impressive Dauphiné stage win to add to his one from Paris-Nice in March.

Pogačar and Vingegaard finished the stage together, with Vingegaard rolling through to take second on the stage. Behind, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) secured his position on the third step of the podium after surviving attacks from a combative Evenepoel.

Martinez had entered the Dauphiné with GC aspirations but he had endured disappointment on the first two days in the Alps. His overall deficit gave him the leeway to get in the break of the day, however, and he proceeded to deliver a fine attack to claim victory.

“Yesterday I was super bad, but the team said to me never give up,” Martinez said. “I tried today, I felt better and finally a victory. It was not a super good week until this stage, but I think we can be proud of this. I hope I can take a stage victory on the Tour.”

Pogačar looked in complete control on Sunday, and he was not troubled by Vingegaard’s attack on the final climb. Their duel will doubtless continue at the Tour de France next month, but Pogačar has clearly marked himself out as the favourite. 

“It’s been a really amazing week and once again today it was a great job from the team. We can go home happy and prepare the Tour,” Pogačar said. “I was here in 2020 and it was a shortened Dauphiné because of COVID times and it was one of the hardest races I did in my career, so I’m super happy and proud to win here.”

It was another aggressive start to the stage, something that has become a regular feature at this Dauphiné. Eventually, a group of twelve riders forged clear of the peloton to establish the breakaway: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike), Tobias Foss (INEOS Grenadiers), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Enric Mas and Iván Romeo (Movistar), Alexey Lutsenko and Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech).

The group collaborated well initially, and there was only one early casualty in the shape of stage 5 winner Jake Stewart. Van der Poel decided he had enough of the others and launched an audacious attack and built a solid lead, but je was eventually caught by his breakaway companions with 16km remaining. Behind, there was a small split in the peloton which involved both Pogačar and Vingegaard in front, but this didn’t amount to anything.

Onto the final climb of the stage, the Col du Mont-Cenis, the breakaway group split as Mas and Martinez established themselves as the strongest in the group.

From the GC group Tobias Halland Johannessen was the first to make a move and was followed by Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers). At the same time, there was a crash on the climb which saw Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) hit the ground as well as Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) and others.

While Tim Wellens set a strong pace for the GC group, the gap to Mas and Martinez wasn’t closing quick enough. Johannessen continued to be one of the most combative riders in the race, as he attacked once more. In the end, it was Evenepoel who attacked and the Belgian was instantly followed by Pogačar and Vingegaard as they bridged to Johannessen, while Lipowitz was unable to match the initial acceleration.

With 7.9km remaining, Martinez launched a strong acceleration to distance Mas, as the Frenchman looked to be closing in on the stage win. With 6.6km left, Vingegaard attacked and only Pogačar was able to follow, and the world champion looked willing to work with Vingegaard.

Martinez battled on to take the stage win, while behind, Pogačar and Vingegaard finished together.