Vingegaard wins final Critérium du Dauphiné classification, green jersey for Laporte

Vingegaard wins final Critérium du Dauphiné classification, green jersey for Laporte

Jonas Vingegaard has won the Critérium du Dauphiné for the first time in his career. The 26-year-old Dane of Team Jumbo-Visma defended his yellow leader's jersey in style on the final stage. The final victory in the French stage race is Vingegaard's 11th in the current cycling year.

The peloton had to climb again in the final stage. The course included no less than six climbs. The organisers hoped to keep the battle open until the end, and a battle for the stage win did indeed ensue. From the early breakaway, which included Tiesj Benoot, the Italian Giulio Ciccone won the stage on the flanks of La Bastille in Grenoble.

On the same climb, Vingegaard added the finishing touch to his general classification victory. The Dane accelerated from the group of favourites and left all his rivals behind. In the end, Vingegaard fell just short of a third stage win, but his 11th victory of the season took his career total to 23 and gave Team Jumbo-Visma its 35th victory in 2023.

"It has been a great week"

Jonas Vingegaard

"I'm honoured to have won this race”, Vingegaard said. "It is one of the biggest and most prestigious races in the world. I am delighted to have won the final classification. The team's work today was once again outstanding. This victory is also theirs. We were in control, and I was never alone. That is a good feeling. It has been a great week, and we have achieved our goals.”

Vingegaard continued: "The form is good. I think all the guys on the team are happy with their strong legs of the past week. I can't thank them enough for their hard work over the last eight days. The only blemish on previous week's race was Steven Kruijswijk's crash, which is a significant loss. Hopefully, he will recover quickly. I knew I was in good shape after the last training block, but it remains to be seen how that translates into the race. I will now take a few days off, and then I will be entirely focused on the Tour de France. The important thing is to connect the dots for the start in Bilbao.”

"We are happy with the way last week went"

Girscha Niermann

"The preparation for the Tour was the most important thing last week”, sports director Grischa Niermann said. "But of course, we also wanted to win this race. We are happy with the way last week went. We saw that Jonas was fine, as was the rest of the team. We will now return to the final phase of our training to leave nothing to chance at the start of the Tour.”

Team Jumbo-Visma also won four stages and the general classification at the 2023 Critérium du Dauphine. Christophe Laporte won the green points jersey.

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