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Chris Froome wins the 2016 Criterium du Dauphine

Chris Froome won the 2016 Tour in a relative canter. But was it a boring race? (Image: Team Sky).
Expert
12th June, 2016
1

Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) has won Stage 7 of the 2016 Criterium du Dauphine, as Chris Froome took the final yellow jersey, with his Sky teammates recovering after being put under some initial pressure.

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Coming into the last stage of the race, Chris Froome had looked in his best form during the previous two stages, both through the mountains, and made no mistake on Stage 7 to take the overall win.

The Kenyan-born British rider came into the day with a lead of just 21 seconds over both Richie Porte and Romain Bardet, and while there would be a shake-up of those positions, no one attacked early enough or put Team Sky under enough pressure to take the overall win.

In another twist of events, Sky were given most of the day off in pacemaking after having to do it all over Stages 5 and 6. Etixx-Quickstep, working for Daniel Martin who was chasing yellow and Julian Alaphilippe – who successfully held his white jersey ahead of Adam Yates – did it all on the front of the peloton, a particularly brutal turn of pace from Tony Martin putting everyone in their place.

Earlier in the stage, it was a big breakaway group that was allowed to go clear for the third time in a row. The riders who made the move where:

Robert Kiserlovski (Tinkoff), Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Ben Gastauer (AG2R-La Mondiale), Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge), Jurgen Van den Broeck (Katusha), Tony Gallopin and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Stephen Cummings and Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), Ryder Hesjedal (Trek-Segafredo), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Romain Sicard (Direct Energie), Jack Bauer and Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale), Jérôme Coppel (IAM Cycling), Bartosz Huzarski and Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida).

Interesting to watch early in the stage was the battle for the King of the Mountains classification. With polka-dot jersey wearer Thibaut Pinot missing the move, the battle between Grmay and Teklehaimanot, who had a seven point advantage at the start of the day, was on.

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Grmay would take one point on the first Category 3 climb of the day, but needed more and when Teklehaimanot took the points over the Category 4 climb he provisionally edged ahead of Pinot.

At the base of the first Category 1 climb, the Col de Moissiere, it would be Stephen Cummings to go on the attack, and despite an attempt from others to follow, no one could. He quickly built his advantage out to 4 minutes over the peloton, and two minutes over an eight-rider group that lacked cohesion.

Incredibly, Cummings held the peloton at bay even with Etixx-Quickstep firing along and held almost five minutes at the beginning of the day’s final climb, the Col du Noyer.

What the pace from Etixx-Quickstep did do was bring back the rest of the breakaway, after Grmay managed to move two points closer on the King of the Mountains over the Moissiere. With both Teklehaimanot and Grmay back in the bunch, the Mountain classification was decided.

It was then over the to the General Classification riders, with Etixx eventually running out of men to drive the pace, and it would be Alberto Contador to launch the move. He put in countless moves, riding most of the second half of the climb out of the saddle and slowly got rid of all the Team Sky riders.

Coming over the top of the climb, Daniel Martin had also been distanced and there were just four riders in the lead – Contador, Froome, Porte and Bardet – the top four riders on general classification coming into the stage.

There was a lack of urgency on the descent though, which allowed Adam Yates, Diego Rosa and Louis Meintjes to close the gap, followed by a handful of other riders which included Alaphilippe and Froome’s three teammates – Mikel Landa, Sergio Henao and Wout Poels.

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They made the junction just before the beginning of the final climb, and with Stephen Cummings still four minutes up the road, plus no attacks coming, he would ride away with a fantastic stage victory.

With Sky controlling the race, it took until the final 500 metres for an attack to go. Richie Porte or Romain Bardet would have only needed 15 seconds on Froome given time bonuses, however Porte coming from the back of the group was almost driven into the barriers by Froome and Sky, meaning he lost all momentum.

Daniel Martin attacked off the front to take second place on the stage with Bardet coming in behind him – both riders gaining the time on Porte to move up a spot on general classification.

At the end of the day though, it was a fairly dour end to the Dauphine as Chris Froome made a big statement ahead of the Tour de France.

Top 10, Stage 7
1. Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) @ 4:05:06
2. Daniel Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) + 3:58
3. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) + 3:58
4. Wout Poells (Sky) + 3:58
5. Adam Yates (Orica GreenEdge) + 3:58
6. Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quickstep) + 3:58
7. Diego Rosa (Astana) + 3:58
8. Louis Meintjes (Lampre-Merida) +3:58
9. Richie Porte (BCM) + 4:03
10. Chris Froome (Sky) + 4:03

General Classification
1. Chris Froome (Sky) @ 29:59:31
2. Romain Bardet (Ag2R La Mondiale) + 0:12
3. Daniel Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) + 0:19
4. Richie Porte (BMC) + 0:21
5. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) + 0:35
6. Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quickstep) + 0:51
7. Adam Yates (Orica GreenEdge) + 0:57
8. Diego Rosa (Astana) + 1:13
9. Louis Meintjes (Lampre) + 1:30
10. Pierre Rolland (Cannondale) + 2:43

Overall winner: Chris Froome (Sky)
Points Classification winner: Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data)
King of the Mountains Classification winner: Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data)
Young Rider Classification winner: Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quickstep)
Team Classification winner: Team Sky

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