(Reuters) – Primoz Roglic underlined his credentials as one of the hot favourites for the Tour de France this year after the Slovenian Jumbo-Visma rider won the Criterium du Dauphine on Sunday.
With his compatriot and two-times Tour winner Tadej Pogacar and Ineos Grenadiers heavyweights absent for this race, Roglic cruised to victory on the back of a strong showing by Jumbo-Visma on the mountainous stages.
Roglic and team mate Jonas Vingegaard were in the breakaway group of riders on the eighth and final stage — a 137.5 km ride from Saint-Alban-Leysse to Plateau de Solaison.
Once victory was assured, they rode to the finish line holding hands as Roglic pushed the Danish rider forward, allowing him to take the stage and finish second in the overall standings.
“I finally won some races in France so it’s super nice,” Roglic said. “It wasn’t just us two, it was the whole team who had everything under control from the start.
“Jonas was super strong on the last climb (to Plateau de Solaison) and it’s crazy, an incredible day for our team.
“As you can see, things are going in the right direction so we can be confident. We have some more time, some more work to do and should be ready for the Tour.”
Australian Ben O’Connor finished third in the general classification, more than a minute behind Vingegaard.
“It was quite incredible. We had the plan that I should attack and he (Roglic) should follow me and we wanted to see if we could drop everyone,” said Vingegaard.
“We succeeded with that so I think we can be very happy and proud with what happened today… To win a stage and finish second overall is a very, very nice result.”
The Tour de France runs from July 1-24.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
