Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang on Sunday outshone defending champion Chris Froome and Australia’s Richie Porte to win the final stage of the Criterium du Dauphine and claim overall victory.
Fuglsang, a silver medalist in the road race at last year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics, went into the stage in third place, but he managed to overhaul his rivals on a grueling mountain ride, 115km over three cols before a final climb to the finish line at the Plateau de Solaison, high in the Alps.
The 32-year-old Dane soloed to the stage win, finishing 12 seconds ahead of Ireland’s Dan Martin of Quick-Step Floors. Crucially, overnight leader Porte of BMC Racing Team was 1 minute, 15 seconds off the pace and Team Sky’s Froome, who started the ride in second place, a further 21 seconds adrift.
Photo: AFP
Fuglsang’s victory meant he leapfrogged Porte in the overall standings, the Australian claiming second at 10 seconds with Martin rounding out the podium by 1 second from Froome, the three-time Tour de France winner.
“It’s amazing. I don’t know what to say. Even with the jersey I can’t believe it, I’ve been close to the yellow jersey many times in my career,” Fuglsang said, dedicating the win to his pregnant wife.
The Dane said the victory was a warning shot at rival teams for next month’s Tour de France.
“There’s still a long way to the Tour, but I’m really happy with my condition now. I’ll have to take it easy onto the Tour,” he said. “With Fabio [Aru] we’ll form a good couple for the Tour. We’ll share the leadership and we have a good team.”
Froome goes into his Tour de France defense next month without a single win to his name this season, in stark contrast to the previous four years when he had won at least two stage races leading up to the Grand Boucle.
“Everyone knew it was going to be a really aggressive day of racing,” Froome said. “For us we weren’t here to try and protect second place — we wanted to race for the win today ... I came here looking for a hard week of racing and that’s exactly what I got.”
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