Roglic wins stage and takes lead at Criterium du Dauphiné

Primoz Roglic won the seventh stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné in a row to extend his overall lead heading into the final stage.

The Bora-Hansgrohe rider took the yellow jersey from Remco Evenepoel on Friday, having won the Samoan 1600 at the mountaintop finish and now leads by 62 seconds.

Both were involved in the serious accident that led to the cancellation of the fifth stage on Thursday, but Evenepoel appears to have suffered the worst.

The Soudal-QuickStep rider struggled again in the queen stage of this year’s race, finishing nearly two minutes behind Roglic, dropping the 24-year-old Belgian to sixth in the overall standings.

The 34-year-old Slovenian Roglic crossed the finish line ahead of Matteo Jorgenson of the United States, who moved into second place overall, with Canada’s Derek Ghee taking third place.

Saturday’s 155.3km route from Albertville included three category 1 climbs before concluding with a 10km climb with an average gradient of 9.3%.

Marc Soler started the race nearly four minutes behind Roglic and at one point led the pack by more than five minutes.

Three kilometres into the final climb, at its steepest section at 12.3 per cent, the Spaniard was still in the lead but Evenepoel had dropped away.

Soler was then caught with 2km to go and Oier Lazcano took the lead as the line approached, but Roglič made a perfectly timed attack to cross the finish line in first place with Jorgenson in hot pursuit.

Riddle-Trek’s Tao Georgehan Hart was one of several riders who withdrew before or during Saturday’s stage, with the British rider still suffering from injuries from Thursday’s accident.

Stage 7 results

1. Primoz Roglic (SLO/Bora-Hansgrohe) 4 hours 29 minutes 16 seconds

2. Matteo Jorgenson (USA/Visma Lease-A-Bike) at the same time

3. Giulio Ciccone (Italy/Riddle-Trek) +2 seconds

4. Oier Lazcano (Spa/Movistar Team) at the same time

5. Derek Ghee (Canada/Israel – Premier Tech)

6. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +8

7. Santiago Buitrago (Colonel/Bahrain Victorious) +14

8. Laurens de Plus (Bell/Ineos Grenadiers)

9. Alexander Vlasov (Russia/Bora-Hansgrohe)

10. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal-QuickStep) +33

General classification

1. Primoz Roglic (SLO/Bora-Hansgrohe) 21 hours 16 minutes 50 seconds

2. Matteo Jorgenson (USA/Visma Lease-A-Bike) +1 minute 2 seconds

3. Derek Ghee (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +1:13

4. Alexander Vlasov (Russia/Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:56

5. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +1:58

6. Remco Evenepoel (Bell/Soudal-QuickStep) +2:15

7. Laurens de Plus (Bell/Ineos Grenadiers) +2:17

8. Oier Lazcano (Spa/Movistar Team) +2:20

9. Giulio Ciccone (Italy/Riddle-Trek) +2:54

10. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal-QuickStep) +3:51