Lenny Martinez wins on the 8th stage, Tadej Pogacar wins the general classification

After a complicated week, the 21-year-old French climber won solo on the Mont-Cenis set on Sunday.

The art of the rebound. In the aftermath of a very difficult day, at the end of which he finished more than thirty-five minutes from the head of the race, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) shone on the 8th and last stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, Sunday, June 15. Member of the morning escape, the young tricolor talent distorted a company in Enric Mas (Movistar) in the last ascent, to cross the line alone on the set of Mont-Cenis.

Not worried about the day, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG) wins his first Critérium du Dauphiné, for his second participation, ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohhe). All with three stage victories on the clock: the Slovenian sets the tone three weeks from the Tour de France.

After raising your arms to Paris-Nice and the Tour of Romandie, Lenny Martinez thus signed his third victory of the season, the third on a World Tour stages race, he who will aim for the same thing on the Tour de France in July. “I was not well, I did not expect much today”, Admitted Lenny Martinez on arrival, “I took the escape, I thought that the peloton was going to come back. It is that in the final I thought there, even if I thought was caught up by Pogacar and Vingegaard, I was blocking in the last kilometer. I came for the general, but I save the week.”

Another Frenchman who can have a smile after this Dauphiné criterium: the young diamond Paul Seixas (Decathlon Ag2r), who finished 8th in this criterium at only 18 years old, after a last difficult day, he who became the youngest runner in the history of the test. Conversely, the Romain Bardet neo-retitity enjoyed his last day of a professional runner, being won at the start of the last ascent towards the Mont-Cenis plateau.

An ascent that has once again been the theater of the duel between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. The Danish has indeed tried a last attack, to reverse the general classification. The two best enemies quickly wasolated themselves, before finishing shoulder against shoulder, behind Lenny Martinez. In the general classification, Tadej Pogacar is ahead of Jonas Vingegaard of 59 seconds, and Florian Lipowitz of 2 minutes and 38 seconds.