Cycling: Primož Roglič wins the Dauphiné tour – Chris Froome has to worry about the tour

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Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard finished the Dauphine Tour together

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David Stockman / dpa

Three weeks before the start of the Tour de France, contender Primož Roglič successfully completed a dress rehearsal by winning the difficult Dauphiné Tour.

The 32-year-old Slovenian won the overall victory on Sunday with a strong performance on the eighth and final stage over 138.8 kilometers from Saint-Alban-Leysse to the Plateau de Salaison and successfully defended the yellow jersey.

Roglič finished second on the mountain finish behind his teammate at the same time, Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark), who finished second overall.

The Dutch team Jumbo-Visma celebrated a double success on the eighth stage and in the overall classification.

Jumbo-Visma also triumphed in the team classification and with the Belgian Wout Van Aert in the sprint classification of the tour.

Simon Geschke as the 75th best German

Roglič had already laid the foundation for overall victory with his second place on Saturday, when he took over the yellow jersey from his teammate Wout van Aert after climbing over the 2,642 meter high Col du Galibier and the 2,067 meter high Col de la Croix de Fer .

On Sunday, Roglič and Vingegaard gave the competition no chance on the final climb.

25-year-old Vingegaard, second in last year's Tour of France, finished the Dauphine 40 seconds behind Roglič.

On the final climb of the 137.5 km stage from Saint-Alban-Leysse to Plateau de Solaison, the two teammates had decisively distanced their closest pursuer, third-placed Ben O'Connor (Australia/AG2R Citroen).

As the best German driver, Simon Geschke (Cofidis) finished 75th on Sunday.

In the overall classification, the 36-year-old Berliner was also the best-placed German professional in 38th place.

In recent years, a successful showing at the Criterium du Dauphiné has often boded well for the Tour.

In five of the last ten editions, the overall winner later also won the Tour of France: Chris Froome (2013, 2015, 2016), Geraint Thomas (2018) and Bradley Wiggins (2012).

Meanwhile, Froome has to worry about his tour ticket.

The 37-year-old Brit got off his bike before the penultimate part of the day and again puzzled over his form.

"It's disappointing but my progress has been good so far and I don't want to risk a setback at this important stage of the season," said Froome.

Since his serious fall in training at the Dauphiné 2019, the Briton has been looking for the form of the old days.

ara/dpa/sid