Tadej Pogačar wins the Critérium du Dauphiné as Lenny Martinez bags the final stage at Plateau du Mont-Cenis

Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) won Sunday’s final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné after an excellent day in the breakaway. Behind him Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) finished third, taking the GC on his first participation in what is a tradition Tour de France warm up race.

The French rider held off a strong move from Jonas Vignegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), who tested both his legs and his Slovenian rival on the climb to Plateau du Mont-Cenis, eventually sprinting to second on the day.

After a disappointing general classification ride, Martinez had infiltrated the early breakaway, before bridging to Enric Mas (Movistar) who attacked on the slopes of the final climb, the Col du Mont-Cenis. The Frenchman then returned the compliment, leaving the Movistar rider behind to take an emotional victory.

Meanwhile, after two taking two stage wins earlier in the week, Pogačar responded to Vignegaard’s late move, occasionally rolling through, but not sprinting for second place on the stage.

With Mas in the breakaway the final climb had been a tactically complex affair, riders moving to defend their GC positions. Chief among those were Tobias Joahanneson, whose UNO-Xsquad worked much of the day to protect his fifth place on GC. When he responded to Mas’s attack late on the final climb that drew out Remco Evenepoel, the Soudal-Quickstep rider defending his fourth place from the Norwegian.

It was, though, Martinez who succeeded, adding to his collection of one week race stage victories since joining Bahrain Victorious at the start of the season.

“I wasn’t really feeling that good, and I didn’t feel like I was going to get anything today, but I got in the front, started to feel good and thought let’s go for it. I thought I’d be caught by them,” Martinez said of Vignegaard and Pogačar. “But I thought it would be a shame too be caught just before the line so I went full gas.

“It was good to have a stage, but it wasn’t good on the General wasn’t good for me.”

Pogačar's overall victory is certainly the first skirmish in the battle that will be the Tour de France next month, and the way the Slovenian has dominated his rival this week seems ominous.

HOW IT HAPPENED

After the fireworks of the two preceding days in the mountains, the 77th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné finished with another beast of a day in the French Alps. While the stage’s profile might not have appeared as spiky as some of the earlier days, much of the day edged uphill, and with five classified climbs and well over 3,500m of vertical ascent, was a challenging and fitting way to close the week.

Starting in Val-d’Arc, the 133.3km route took the riders to Plateau du Mont-Cenis, the final climb of the Col-du-Mont-Cenis topped out some five kilometres from the the finish line, creating the chance of an unpredictable final.

The start of the race headed straight uphill, and while some were dropped, the race stayed largely together for the opening kilometres, and a speculative move by Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) brought back still with 126km to go.

After a mother Van der Poel attempt, a group of nine finally got away, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) leading, with Maxim van Gils (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Sepp Kuss (Visma Lease a Bike), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quikcstep), Lenny Martinez Bahrain-Victorious), Bruno Amirail (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Alexey Lutsenko (Israel-Premier Tech), with Enric Mas and his team mate, stage three winner Iván Romeo all present.

Some 10km later they were joined first by Van der Poel, obviously keen to regain the green points jersey, then Tobias Foss (INEOS Grenadiers) and stage five winner, Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech), creating a 12 man group who led the bunch by 2:40, with 82km to go, the third classified climb of the day approaching.

Here, on the Col de Beaune, the climbing began to take its toll, with Stewart beginning to slip backwards out of the breakaway, while some of his fellow sprinters we’re doing likewise in the peloton. That group included Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty), the French climbing star suffering after starting the day only 15 minutes behind overall leader, Tedej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates).

With 58km remaining, and points classification bonuses available in Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, Van der Poel attacked. Not only did he bag the points, reclaiming the lead of the green jersey competition from Pogačar, but he pushed on, putting time into both the peloton and the remainder of the break.

Behind, UNO-X Mobility were chasing, defending Johannessen’s GC placing from Mas, and pushing on the descents causing come splits in the peloton, even briefly isolating both Pogačar and Vignegaard from their team mates.

Entering the final 30km and on the approach to the bottom of the Col du Mont Cenis, it seemed possible that Van der Poel could win the stage, his lead at 1:10 on the chasing group, and the peloton at 2:30. However, only 10km further on, as the climb loomed large, the Dutch superstar’s lead was plummeting, the chasers within 40 seconds and the bunch under two minutes.

Van der Poel was eventually caught 15km from the line, slipping inexorably through the group, before, soon after, others began to drop form the break, while those remaining starting to attack each other. With 10km Mas attacked, taking Martinez with him causing a further reaction from UNO-X’s Tobias Johannessen whose fifth place on GC was threatened by the Spaniard.

As the climb wore on, Vignegaard decided to play his card, attacking the small group, and this time only Pogačar was able to respond. The pair have been responsible for every Tour de France win since 2020 and it seemed they may catch Martinez, who entered the final five kilometres leading by only 49 seconds.

RESULTS: CRITÉRIUM DU DAUPHINÉ, STAGE 8, VAL-D’ARC > PLATEAU DU MONT-CENIS (133.3KM)

1. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious, in 3:34:18

2. Jonas Vignegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, at 34 sec
3. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at same time
4. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, at 40 sec
5. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quickstep, at same time
6. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, att 45 sec
7. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Redbull-Bora-Hansgrohe, at 47 sec
8. Tobias Johannessen (Nor) UNO-X Mobility, at same time
9. Ben Healy (Ire) EF Education-EasyPost, at 1:01
10. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, at same time

FINAL GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 29:19:46
2. Jonas Vignegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, at 59 sec
3. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Redbull-Bora-Hansgrohe, at 2:38
4. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quickstep, at 4:21
5. Tobias Johannessen (Nor) UNO-X Mobility, at 6:12
6. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, at 7:28
7. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, at 7:57
8. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, at 8:25
9. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) INEOS Grenadiers, at 8:57
10. Guillaume Martin (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, at 10:01