Criterium du Dauphine: Fuglsang takes overall victory
16 June 2019 02:01
Jakob Fuglsang secured overall victory at the Criterium du Dauphine after his Astana team controlled his GC rivals and efficiently dissuaded any attacks on the final mountain stage to Champery across the French border into Switzerland in the heart of the Alps. Fuglsang started the stage with an eight-second lead on Adam Yates, but the Mitchelton-Scott rider surprisingly abandoned with 50km left to race, his team revealing he was suffering with a fever. Fuglsang’s other rivals lacked the terrain and courage to try to crack him, and so the Astana blue train gave the Dane an armchair ride to the finish. Dylan van Baarle (Team Ineos) won the 113km stage after being part of the 13-rider move of the day. He and Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) were the strongest on the final climbs and rode to the finish together, with van Baarle using his better speed and sprint skills to win. Astana brought the GC group home some 1:59 down on van Baarle to begin the celebrations and give Fuglsang his second overall victory in the French stage race, two years after his first.ADVERTISEMENT Yates abandonment meant that Tejay van Garderen (EF Education First) finished second overall, 20 seconds down on Fuglsang, with Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) confirming his stage race credentials with third overall at 21 seconds. Wout Poels (Team Ineos) was fourth at 28 seconds. "I jumped in the blue limousine and they rode me to the finish," Fuglsang joked about the strength of his Astana team during the final stage. "I expect the day to be even harder than it turned out to be, but my teammates did a great job and controlled it so perfect. We got a nice group up front; the best guy was five minutes down or something in the GC. Yates stopped for some reason and Kruijswijk had problems too; maybe yesterday was hard for some due to the cold and today then the team did the rest for me.” A short, controlled but intense final stage
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