The Dauphiné 2024 is the race of confirmation. That of Primoz Roglic, general captain of BORA, looking to forget his past misfortunes while he collects stages and sets his sights on the overall that will take him to the start of the Tour in beautiful Florence as a winning horse. That of one of our own, Oier Lazkano, who has a prodigious lack of definition as a prodigious professional. He exhibited himself in another notch inside Roglic’s revolver with success.
“It looks easy, but really the key was that the teammates did an incredible job and controlled from the start. I’m glad I had the legs at the end to finish it off. I said to myself, why not try for the stage? I just wanted to win because the team did a job after the crash. Another day and we can celebrate and be happy. Let’s try to finish it tomorrow. We’ll do our best and we’ll see,” Roglic said at the finish.
The day of the Dauphiné was full of difficulties and chained passes. Names that in July are something else. Saisies soon, Ramaz or the finish between Samoens 2000 and the Olympic Albertville. There, in the resort that made Bjorn Daehlie the king of skiing, another snowman, Primoz Roglic, finished the magnificent work of his team.
Represented in the Russian Vlasov. He goes from being one of those who give few relays to a great value as a gregario. He left the selected group and blew up the general classification by cutting Remco Evenepoel with 7 to go. He said he wasn’t going for the yellow, that that will be a battle in three weeks’ time. And he delivered, letting himself go to lose his chances of fighting with Roglic. So much for Bora’s ambition, which set up the perfect finish.
But there was a surprise guest in Oier Lazkano. It was a day of hard climbs and hardness, and there he was. The jewel of national cycling. Showing his face. And at 700 meters he took off like a plane to test. Roglic, who doesn’t like to be touched in the distance, watched him and accelerated to impose his trademark finishes. Only he can do them. And the one who disputes him is from his country and will see him again at the end of the month…
Roglic won ahead of Jorgenson and Ciccone. Lazkano, huge, came in fourth, Carlos Rodriguez was sixth and Mikel Landa, ninth. One aims for the Tour, the other aims for national cycling to count on him as a world star. The Dauphiné is the magnificent test bed for all this.
The French round will end this Sunday with the eighth stage, another mountainous section of 160.7 kilometers between Thônes and Plateau des Glières, where we will know the successor of Danish Jonas Vingegaard, last year’s champion.
Critérium du Dauphiné (2.UWT)
Results Stage 7: Albertville → Samoëns (145,5 Km)
| 1 | Primož Roglic | BORA – hansgrohe | 4:29:16 |
| 2 | Matteo Jorgenson | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | ,, |
| 3 | Giulio Ciccone | Lidl – Trek | 0:02 |
| 4 | Oier Lazkano | Movistar Team | ,, |
| 5 | Derek Gee | Israel – Premier Tech | ,, |
| 6 | Carlos Rodríguez | INEOS Grenadiers | 0:08 |
| 7 | Santiago Buitrago | Bahrain – Victorious | 0:14 |
| 8 | Laurens De Plus | INEOS Grenadiers | ,, |
| 9 | Aleksandr Vlasov | BORA – hansgrohe | ,, |
| 10 | Mikel Landa | Soudal Quick-Step | 0:33 |
Ranking General
| 1 | Primož Roglic | BORA – hansgrohe | 21:16:50 |
| 2 | Matteo Jorgenson | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 1:02 |
| 3 | Derek Gee | Israel – Premier Tech | 1:13 |
| 4 | Aleksandr Vlasov | BORA – hansgrohe | 1:56 |
| 5 | Carlos Rodríguez | INEOS Grenadiers | 1:58 |
| 6 | Remco Evenepoel | Soudal Quick-Step | 2:15 |
| 7 | Laurens De Plus | INEOS Grenadiers | 2:17 |
| 8 | Oier Lazkano | Movistar Team | 2:20 |
| 9 | Giulio Ciccone | Lidl – Trek | 2:54 |
| 10 | Mikel Landa | Soudal Quick-Step | 3:51 |