Jacob Fuglsang wins Dauphine in thrilling finale

Jacob Fuglsang won the final stage and beat Richie Porte overall to take the 2017 Criterium du Dauphine victory

The final stage of the Dauphine was 115 kilometers from Albertville to Plateau de Solaison and included four categorized climb. The day started with the 1st-category Col des Saisies, followed by the Col des Aravis of the 2nd category, the famous 1st-category Col de la Colombiere and finished with the Hors Category Plateau de Solaison mountain top finish.

The early breakaway of the day didn't last as second-placed Chris Froome attacked several times on the Col du Colombiere leaving Richie Porte without any teammates.

Porte was isolated and Alejandro Valverde attacked and was joined by Fabio Aru.

Next, Romain Bardet, Jakob Fuglsang and Daniel Martin rode away from the Porte, Froome and Contador and opened a gap.

Alberto Contador launched an attack and Louis Meintjes, White Jersey holder Emanuel Buchmann and Simon Yates followed.

Valverde and Aru were 50s ahead of Froome and Porte with the other GC riders somewhere in between at the top of the Cole de la Colombiere.

It was here thatm, Chris Froome launched a devestating attack near the summit that saw Porte get dropped. He bridged up to the Contador group and they started to ride at a very hard pace.

Valverde and Aru were still in the lead at the foot of the final climb of the Plateau de Solaison, but the Froome Contador group were catching them.

Behind Porte was desperately trying to limit the damage.

Froome and contador caught Aru and Valverde with 10 kms to go. Valverde was dropped shortly afterwards as a result of his earlier attacks.

Porte fought back by himself and managed to reduce the gap from 1'10" to just 48 seconds with 7.0 kilometers to go.

But Dan Martin attacked and Jacob Fuglsang followed. Froome and company could not respond and no one would work with Froome.

Fuglsang dropped Dan Martin with five kilometers to go and his lead edged towards 1 minute ahead of Porte. Overall heas was 1 minute 15 seconds behind Porte,

Porte realizing his predicament, passed Valverde, Contador and Froome in the final 5 kilometres desperately trying to close the gap between himself and Fuglsang.

But Fuglsang had opened up the gap to 1min 14 secs with 3 kms to go and with the time bonus, was not only looking like the stage winner but the overall winner too.

Porte needed to finished with 1m 6secs of Fuglsang to hang onto the overall.

Fuglsang took the stage ahead of Martin, Meintjes and Buchmann who defended his White Jersey.

But Porte crossed the line at 1'15" down on Fuglsang and lost the Dauphine by 10 seconds.

Fuglsang commented afterwards "I decided to stay calm throughout the race and only attack if the opportunity arrouse. When we caught Valverde and Aru and Martin went and felt good and thought this could be my opportunity to win the stage. It was only after dropping Froome that I realized that I was in a position to win the overall so I just kept going. I still in shock that I've won the overall."

2017 Criterium du dauphine Stage 8 Top Ten Results

1 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 3:26:20
2 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:12
3 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Team UAE Emirates 0:00:27
4 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:44
5 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:01
6 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:02
7 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:01:15
8 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:36
9 Rafael Valls (Spa) Lotto Soudal 0:01:41
10 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:03:30

2017 Criterium du Dauphine final classification after Stage 8

1 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 29:05:54
2 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:10
3 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:32
4 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:33
5 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:37
6 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:04
7 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:02:32
8 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Team UAE Emirates 0:03:12
9 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:04:08
10 Rafael Valls (Spa) Lotto Soudal 0:04:40