‘It was close’ – Primož Roglič on surviving attacks to win Critérium du Dauphiné

Primož Roglič managed to survive late-stage attacks by his closest rivals in the general classification to hold on to his lead – barely – and win the Critérium du Dauphiné for the second time in his career on Sunday. He claimed the overall by a slim eight seconds on Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease A Bike), the smallest advantage since 2001 when Christophe Moreau won by one second over Pavel Tonkov.

Going into the final day’s racing, another arduous mountain trek after the Queen Stage, Roglič had a seemingly unassailable margin of 1:02 seconds on Jorgenson, and 1:13 on Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech). But it almost came undone on the final ascent of the ascent of Col des Glières (9.4km at 7.1%) with some steep pitches exceeding 10%.