Criterium du Dauphine: Yates wins final stage

Adam Yates attacked inside the last kilometre of today’s final stage of Criterium du Dauphine to take a stage victory and finish in second place overall behind Geraint Thomas.

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Criterium du Dauphine: Yates wins final stage


Adam Yates attacked inside the last kilometre of today’s short final stage of Criterium du Dauphine to take a stage victory and finish in second place overall.

Yates waited patiently until the final moments to attack away from the small group of general classification contenders and past the solo leader Daniel Navarro (Cofidis), to claim the win and wrap up a successful week for Mitchelton-SCOTT.

South African champion and stage one winner Daryl Impey was able to hold onto the green points jersey after a close battle all week. … continued after advert

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The final stage was no easy feat with four, first-category climbs coming within the short 136kilometre race with a summit finish up to Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains. On the first climb of the day, after multiple attacks, a breakaway of six riders formed ahead of the peloton.

The group rode out to around three minutes with the main GC contenders watching one another in the main peloton.  On the final steep first category climb, the race was on and the breakaway began to split up on the steep slopes.

David Gaudu (FDJ) attacked and led the race solo for most of the climb as the chasing group behind dissolved, to leave only the five main GC contenders including Yates. The group hovered 40seconds behind but continued to work together to slowly reel in the remaining escapees and finally Gaudu.

Navarro was the next to attack and the move looked promising, however biding his time behind, Yates waited for the chasing group to start to suffer and went on the attack alongside Roman Bardet (AG2R).

Within the final kilometre, as Bardet slowed, Yates continued to keep the pressure on the pedals and pushed away, over taking the leader Navarro in the last 50metres to take the stage win and cement his second place overall behind Geraint Thomas (Team Sky).

Adam Yates – Stage 7 winner – “It’s been two back to back hard stages. The past four days, I’ve always been the one to initiate the attacks. So today I decided to wait. I just made that final move towards the end.

“I could take the stage win on the last corner. Romain Bardet was trying to overtake me in the GC but every time I responded.

“The Tour de France has been my main goal for the whole season. We’re getting closer and closer so I’m happy to get confidence from this race. I look forward to the Tour now.”
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Geraint Thomas (Overall winner): the Welshman was still struggling to come to terms with his achievement, beaming: “It’s incredible, it hasn’t sunk in yet! The guys were just incredible, they rode really well for me.”

He added: “I was always thinking of the next stage, the next climb and it’s an amazing feeling [to win] and I think it will really start to sink in tonight. It’s a massive race and it’s an incredible feeling.”

“The puncture didn’t really help and having to chase back on, but the guys were just incredible, they rode really well for me and I had the legs to get back.”

“I was just counting down the kilometres on the last climb and knew I had about 1’20” to lose on [Adam] Yates so as each kilometre went by I was more confident and happy [with each passing kilometre]. When they started sprinting with 300m to go I was like, it’s done – finally.”

“I’m just going to enjoy this win now, rest up and recover and look forward to July.”

Dan Martin: 4th overall) “I felt good the entire stage,” Martin said, “but in the final, my legs didn’t respond how I thought they would. I’m still happy with the overall results in this race. I’m at a physical level I didn’t really expect.”

“I won a beautiful stage, I took fourth overall. The team, very young here, rode well at my side and was working strongly the entire week. They were incredible. We paid in the team time trial, but in the mountain stages, my teammates were always there, first in the escapes and then with support”.

“Now, I’m going to recover for a few days and then build towards the Tour de France.”

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