It was a terrible blow to Trek-Segafredo’s Italian climber Giulio Ciccone when COVID-19 kept him out of the Giro d’Italia, but on Sunday’s final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, he earned his second WorldTour stage win of the season. Ciccone also moved up to 11th on GC and won the KOM competition. In coming second on Sunday Jonas Vingegaard padded his lead at the top of the standings and was crowned champion.
The Course
The last day offered up six categorized climbs, the final four packed into the last 58 km. At that point the HC-rated Col du Granier kicked up, before Cat. 2 Col du Cucheron, Cat. 1 Col de Porte and then the conclusion of the 75th edition: the nasty little La Bastille, 1.8 km of 13.6 percent.
A day for the breakaway or a day for the GC men?
We’ll find out in a couple of hours, but one thing is certain: we’ll have quite the show on the climb of La Bastille, back in the #Dauphine after 23 years. pic.twitter.com/3fbiZerloW
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) June 11, 2023
It was to be a day of crowd-pleasing for Julian Alaphilippe, who dropped off the podium on Saturday. The French buccaneer was part of a sextet of breakaways containing the KOM Victor Campenaerts and Ciccone. Camperaerts kept adding to his KOM lead by tipping over Col de Pinet and Col des Mouilles first. The sextet became a nontet and headed toward the HC climb without a large gap over the peloton.
The Col du Granier showed it was another bad day for David Gaudu in the field. In the breakaway, Campernaerts fell away and Tiesj Benoot crested first.
🏁 54km
⚡️ 🇫🇷@alafpolak1 distance 🇧🇪@TiesjBenoot et 🇮🇹@giuliocicco1 dans la montée vers le col du Granier et part en solitaire !
⚡️ 🇫🇷@alafpolak1 outpaces 🇧🇪@TiesjBenoot and 🇮🇹@giuliocicco1 on the climb up the Col du Granier and goes solo!#Dauphiné pic.twitter.com/6MNbEKg1GD
— Critérium du Dauphiné (@dauphine) June 11, 2023
By the penultimate climb, Alaphilippe and Ciccone were left out front, and then it was just the Italian. Could Ciccone possibly take the KOM from Campenaerts, or was he simply going to run out of climbs? Egan Bernal disappeared from the radically shrunk yellow jersey group before Adam Yates attacked. Vingegaard surfed his wheel. The small favorites group reformed before it caught Alaphilippe. Ciccone went over the top with a 30-second lead.
La…
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