Less than three weeks before the start of the Tour de France in Copenhagen, Roglic and Vingegaard have justified their status as the first opponents of the reigning winner, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (absent from Dauphiné).

The duo dominated the alpine race, along the eight stages leading from the Rhône valley to Haute-Savoie, to climb on the final podium with the Australian Ben O'Connor, excellent third at 1 min 41 sec from Roglic.

In the last stage (138.8 km), the Jumbo team worked to achieve a new victory, to add to the two of its strong man, the Belgian champion Wout van Aert.

She condemned the survivors of the breakaway less than 7 kilometers from the finish and distanced O'Connor on an acceleration from Vingegaard approaching the last 5 kilometers.

The Australian, fourth in the 2021 Tour, however kept the "yellow and black" duettists in focus, around twenty seconds away.

On the steep ramps of the hard final climb (11.3 km at 9.2%), Roglic appeared less comfortable than Vingegaard who behaved like a respectful lieutenant and cadet.

Dane Jonas Vingegaard leads his leader during their breakaway in the last stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, disputed between Saint-Alban-Leysse and the Plateau de Solasion, June 12, 2022 Marco BERTORELLO AFP

Collective strength against Pogacar

To each his own role, Vingegaard (25) won a stage in the Dauphiné for the first time and confirmed above all that he could be co-leader on the next Tour de France, a year after revealing himself by taking second place in the Big loop.

Roglic, for his part, has settled a dispute with the French stage races of the WorldTour which have refused him in recent years.

"I manage to win in France", smiled the Slovenian (32 years old) who, in the past, lost in the last 48 hours Paris-Nice, the Dauphiné and especially the Tour de France 2020.

The joy of Slovenian Primoz Roglic, winner of the Critérium du Dauphiné, on June 12, 2022, at the end of the last stage, disputed between Saint-Alban-Leysse and the Plateau de Solaison, and won by his Danish teammate Jonas Vingegaard, 2nd in the general classification Marco BERTORELLO AFP

Winner of Paris-Nice in March, he won the Dauphiné which had escaped him in 2020 after a fall.

On the morning of the last stage, in Megève, the former ski jumper had left the race while wearing the yellow jersey.

"The whole team is fine, we controlled this difficult stage all day long", welcomed Roglic about a group which will be forced to rely on its collective strength to compete with Pogacar in the Tour.

If this 74th edition of the Dauphiné validated the Jumbo plan, in a management of efforts far from the steamroller strategy of the summer of 2020, it left questions unanswered.

Both for the Ineos team, whose British leader Tao Geoghegan Hart plateaued in the rise of Solaison, and for the Bahrain team, down from its irresistible 2021 campaign. Or for David Gaudu, victim of a day without (the heat?) at the conclusion of a very satisfying week so far.

© 2022 AFP