2019 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 7 Results & Recap
Stage 7 of the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Wout Poels won stage 7 of the Criterium du Dauphine under epic conditions on the mountaintop finish at Les Sept Laux-Pipay. The Ineos rider attacked leaders Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the final two kilometres of a ferocious uphill battle between GC contenders and came across the line a few seconds ahead.
“It’s really nice for the team and it’s a gift for Chris [Froome] also,” Poels said. “I felt pretty strong all day. The team did an amazing job. 500 metres before the line, I thought it would be difficult to catch the two guys away but in the last corner I came and just round over them. It’s very nice to win here.”
Fuglsang took over the leaders jersey from Adam Yates after attacking the Mitchelton Scott rider on the final ascent. He now leads the Dauphine by a slim eight seconds.
“When we started, it looked like it was going to be a nice day,” said Fuglsang, who won the Dauphine two years ago. “We were hoping for a good weather the whole day but in the last climb it was so cold. Half of me was just saying ‘ok let’s get to the finish as fast as possible,’ that was the only thing I wanted to do. I’m happy with the jersey and I hope to defend it tomorrow although the last day is going to be a difficult day. The short format will make it a hard and interesting racing with the jersey, it might not be as enjoyable as when I won the Dauphiné two years ago. I took the jersey on the last day.”
Stage 7 of the Dauphine was no walk in the park for the remaining 132 riders in the peloton.
After some unsuccessful attacks before the first climb a break of 22 riders was established. Gianni Moscon and Dylan van Baarle (Ineos), Jack Haigh and Damian Howson (Mitchelton-Scott), Mikaël Chérel (AG2R-La Mondiale), Julian Alaphilippe and Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe), Alexey Lutsenko and Magnus Cort (Astana), Jesper Hansen (Cofidis), Ruben Fernandez (Movistar), Lennard Hofstede (Jumbo-Visma), Niklas Eg and Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo), Michael Woods (EF Education First), Rémy Mertz (Lotto-Soudal), Mark Padun (Bahrain-Merida), Joey Rosskopf (CCC), Quentin Pacher (Vital Concept), Kevin Ledanois (Arkea-Samsic) and Rob Power (Sunweb).
The biggest threat in the breakaway was Lutsenko, who was sitting in eighth place, just 30 seconds behind Yates. The move put Mitchelton Scott under pressure, who kept the breakaway at around three to four minutes over the next two KOMs.
Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Edward Ravasi (UAE Team Emirates), Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Pierre Rolland (Vital Concept-B&B Hôtel) and Jérémy Maison (Arkea-Samsic) bridged across to the leaders on the descent of the first climb. But Alaphilippe took off on the descent with Hofstede, and the duo stayed out in front of the massive group of chasers until about 40km to go.
On the penultimate climb of the day, Movistar took over the pace setting from Mitchelton Scott, keen to set up Nairo Quintana. As the gap began to shrink, The breakaway began to attack each other with only Lutsenko and Woods able to stay out in front the longest. The GC group came back together with four km to go, and Buchmann attacked. Yates took up chase with Fuglsang leapfrogging him to join the Bora Hansgrohe rider.
Poels jumped out of the yellow jersey group, caught and passed Buchmann and Fuglsang and went on to victory. \n
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