Criterium du Dauphine: Chris Froome claims overall victory with stage eight win
Last Updated: 14/06/15 5:17pm
Chris Froome claimed overall victory at the Criterium du Dauphine thanks to a second successive stage victory in a thrilling race finale.
The Team Sky leader made his move less than three kilometres from the summit finish at Modane Valfrejus and soon broke the resolve of leader Tejay van Garderen.
Froome eventually crossed the line with an advantage of 18 seconds on Van Garderen (BMC Racing), who lost out on any bonus seconds in the last 200 metres when he was passed by Britain's Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) and Rui Costa of Lampre-Merida.
The stage victory brought 10 seconds in bonuses for Froome, and those seconds were enough to secure victory for the 2013 Tour de France winner, who won the Dauphine as part of his preparation for that success.
Froome, who won the seventh stage on Mont Blanc on Saturday, was led into the closing stages by Wout Poels, who set a strong pace and got the remnants of the group within sight of leader Steve Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka) before pulling over just after the Briton attacked.
Only Van Garderen was able to respond, but he was soon losing bike-lengths by the second and his effort eventually saw him caught by Yates, who won the young rider's jersey, Costa and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha).
But there was no stopping Froome, who continued to pedal at a high cadence all the way to the line as he attempted to eke out the seconds he needed to overhaul the American.
"I can't believe it. I couldn't have expected to go any better today," Froome said.
"The legs were really tired after yesterday and the whole team was suffering because of the work they did yesterday. I don't know how they did it; the whole team just lifted themselves today.
"Up until now I've only been thinking of the end of the Dauphine. But of course the Tour de France is the big objective. Yeah, I think the team is ready, I think I'm almost ready."
Stage eight result:
1 Chris Froome (Gbr) Team Sky 3hrs 59mins 27secs
2 Simon Yates (Gbr) Orica-GreenEdge +18s
3 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida st
4 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing st
5 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha +28s
6 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale st
7 Daniel Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin +31s
8 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky +44s
9 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar st
10 Benat Intxausti (Esp) Movistar st
Overall standings:
1 Chris Froome (Gbr) Team Sky 30hrs 59mins 02secs
2 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing +10s
3 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida +1:16
4 Benat Intxausti (Esp) Movistar +1:21
5 Simon Yates (Gbr) Orica-GreenEdge +1:33
