Reigning Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar on Sunday wrapped up the Criterium du Dauphine title in the eighth and final stage, which was won by France’s Lenny Martinez.
A winner of three stages, the Slovenian dominated the 77th edition of the Dauphine to top the overall classification by 59 seconds ahead of Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard — three weeks before the start of the Tour de France.
“It’s been a really amazing week,” Pogacar said.
Photo: AFP
“Once again today, the team did a great job. We managed to defend the [yellow] jersey, and we can go home happy and prepare for the Tour,” he said.
German Florian Lipowitz completed the podium, 2 minutes, 38 seconds behind Pogacar, while Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel came fourth at 4 minutes, 21 seconds.
Sunday’s final stage was a 133.3km mountainous trek from Val-d’Arc to Val-Cenis, France, with an uphill finish at the Plateau du Mont-Cenis.
The 21-year-old Martinez caught Spaniard Enric Mas with 8km to go to give France their first victory in this year’s Dauphine, finishing 34 seconds ahead of Vingegaard and Pogacar.
Vingegaard tried to catch Martinez, but was unable to shake off Pogacar. The Dane and the Slovenian then stopped attacking and rolled in together.
Pogacar now has 99 victories to his name — a record for an active rider at just 26 years old.
“There’s a lot of positives from this week and we turned all the negatives into positives, so it’s all good,” said Pogacar, who bounced back from a poor time trial in stage four to lay down the gauntlet to his principal Tour rivals.
“There’s not much to do ahead of the Tour. I rest a bit, maybe some extra work for the time trial, and then I’m ready,” the three-time Tour de France winner said.
This year’s Tour de France runs from July 5 to 27, with Pogacar the firm favorite following his first Dauphine crown.
The pressure was already on Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso before their 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League raised further questions about his future. Arsenal remain perfect in this season’s competition and three points clear at the top of the standings after a 3-0 win against Club Brugge, while defending champions Paris Saint-Germain were held 0-0 at Athletic Bilbao. The clash between Madrid and City was the standout game of the round amid reports this week that Alonso had lost control of the locker room. Speculation over his position is likely to intensify after the latest
‘HIGH STANDARD’: The Thunder are on track for a Finals-Cup double after they scored 22 three-pointers in equaling the best 25-game start to a season in NBA history The Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday bagged a 16th straight victory, thrashing the Phoenix Suns 138-89 to romp into an NBA Cup semi-final clash with the San Antonio Spurs, who stunned the Los Angeles Lakers 132-119. NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 28 points to lead the reigning NBA champions Thunder, who improved to 24-1 to equal the best 25-game start to a season in league history. They dominated from start to finish to book their place in the final four of the in-season tournament in Las Vegas, where they are tomorrow to take on the Spurs. The New York Knicks and
TOP OF THE TABLE: Evann Guessand put the visitors ahead early in the game and Flavius Daniliuc equalized before Youri Tielemans got the winner in the second half Aston Villa on Thursday extended their winning streak to eight games in all competitions with a 2-1 victory against Basel in the UEFA Europa League to secure at least a playoff spot. Villa were tied with Olympique Lyonnais, who beat Go Ahead Eagles 2-1, and Midtjylland, 1-0 winners over Genk, atop the standings of the second-tier European competition on 15 points with five wins from six games. They have bounced back from a poor start to the season and are third in the Premier League, including a 2-1 victory over leaders Arsenal on Saturday. At St Jakob-Park in Basel, summer signing Evann Guessand
Tony Jefferson intercepted a Jalen Hurts pass in overtime to give the Los Angeles Chargers a 22-19 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday in an NFL thriller between playoff contenders. Justin Herbert, playing a week after surgery on his broken left (non-throwing) hand, withstood a career-high seven sacks to throw for 139 yards and a touchdown for the Chargers. Cameron Dicker kicked five field goals, including the 54-yard game winner in overtime. The Chargers defenders forced Hurts to throw four interceptions and surrender a fumble for a career-worst five turnovers as the Eagles fell to 8-5 with a third
RSS