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Roglic takes Criterium lead with mountain win

cycling07 June 2024 17:00| © AFP
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Primoz Roglic @ getty images

Bora's Primoz Roglic won stage six of the Criterium du Dauphine on Friday after dropping overnight leader Remco Evenepoel on the tough Alpine final climb.

With his trademark late kick the Slovenian unexpectedly eased away from Italian climber Giulio Ciccone and Russian Aleksandr Vlasov to also clinch the win and its bonus seconds.

A day after a mass fall in which both Evenepoel, 24, and veteran Roglic, 34, were caught up the elder rider proved he was relatively unaffected on the 174km run from Hauterives to Le Collet d'Allevard in southeastern France.

Under overcast skies with temperatures of 23 Celsius, the final climb was 11km at 8.1 per cent gradient, which proved too much for the Belgian, who sat on the wet tarmac on Thursday clutching his shoulder.

"It was quite a positive day," said Evenepoel. "If you saw me two weeks ago I wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes there," he insisted.

"The Tour de France ends in Nice, not here on Sunday. That's why I'm here."

Evenepoel broke a collarbone and shoulder blade on the Tour of the Basque Country on April 4, with Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard also involved in that crash.

Roglic escaped with cuts and bruises but Vingegaard and Evenepoel both collected multiple fractures.

On Friday, Roglic took the leader's yellow jersey with two mountain stages to go with Evenepoel at 19 seconds and American Visma rider Matteo Jorgensen third at 53 seconds.

"My shoulder is still hurting," said Roglic. "But the legs, apparently both of them work."

Three weeks before the Tour de France starts this was a promising test for Roglic and Evenepoel who are billed as rivals to defending champion Vingegaard and Giro winner Tadej Pogacar.

Around 14 riders pulled out either last night or this morning following the mass fall with two also suffering respiratory problems, one confirmed as Covid.

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