00:01On to the eighth and final stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné.
00:05Tadej Pogacar has dominated this 77th edition
00:08and could even reach the milestone of 100 career victories if he takes the honours today.
00:14However, the Slovenian may be happy to simply defend his yellow and blue jersey.
00:19Jonas Vingegaard trails by a minute
00:21and while he hasn't been able to match Pogacar in the mountains this week,
00:25the Dane still feels that he's on the right track for the Tour de France.
00:30I mean of course it would be nice to take the overall victory here.
00:37So I mean, the race is not finished and we just have to do everything we can.
00:41Yesterday was very good but I do still think that I can get better.
00:45So I can't put a number on it but I'm pretty sure I can get better.
00:49Florian Lipovic has been one of the revelations of this Dauphiné
00:53which he's on course to finish in third place overall.
00:56The 24-year-old German is then set to get his first taste of the Tour,
01:00no doubt riding in support of Primoz Roglic.
01:03I think I'm happy with how the position is right now.
01:10We have to see how the others will ride today.
01:14But I'm happy if we can go to the finish like this and finish off this race well.
01:21I think I showed I can race good in one week.
01:24So we will see then on the next round tour how it goes.
01:29This was also Romain Bardet's last day as a professional bike rider.
01:33The man who won four Tour de France stages, memorably taking yellow on the opening day last year,
01:38was given a touching send off by his fellow riders.
01:44It's really heartwarming.
01:45Even if the peloton is always getting younger, I've always felt at home with the guys.
01:50And they have pushed me to always keep improving, to stay competitive until my very last race day.
01:58It's got harder and harder, but I leave with absolutely no sense of bitterness.
02:04I feel very happy to have been part of this peloton.
02:08It's great.
02:11Well, stage eight isn't as tough as yesterday, but there are still three and a half thousand meters of climbing.
02:17The final hike up the Col de Montceny will certainly sting the legs.
02:21It's 9.6K at 6.9% before a five kilometer plateau to the finish line.
02:26If there's no GC action, this could be one for the breakaway.
02:30Well, eleven riders got into that breakaway and they built a maximum lead of four minutes
02:39before the peloton started to reel them back in.
02:42Mathieu van der Poel was up there looking to take back the green jersey from Pogaccia
02:47and he picked up a maximum hoard of ten points at the intermediate sprints.
02:51The issue for the breakaway was the presence of Enric Maas who began the day tenth overall.
02:56No sweat for Pogaccia, but a bit too close for some of the other riders in the top ten.
03:02He had the support of a teammate in Ivan Romeo and there were lots of strong climbers in the group.
03:07Sepp Kuss, Valentin Paripantra, Ben Healy, Lenny Martinez, Maxim van Hills and Alexei Lutsenko.
03:15With Maas at the front, Uno X Mobility began chasing to defend Tobias Johannesson's fifth place overall.
03:21The Norwegians keeping the gap at under three minutes.
03:26Paul van der Poel had actually pushed on solo after the intermediate sprint,
03:30the Dutchman leading his fellow escapees by 45 seconds.
03:35The break approaching the fourth of the day, six climbs, the Côte de Saint-Andre.
03:40Van der Poel was still plugging away nicely and he reached the summit 50 seconds clear.
03:45Bruno Armouray then pounced to take the remaining points,
03:48the Frenchman becoming the virtual leader of the points classification ahead of Pogaccia.
03:55And the wind made his impression at the summit of the Côte d'Antandre.
04:01A bit of rain starting to fall, which meant taking extra care on the descents.
04:06Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah.
04:10Well, van der Poel just about keeping it on two wheels.
04:14The former world champion leading them into the final part of the stage.
04:18Next up was the Côte d'Ossoua, 6.3km at 6.2%.
04:22Van der Poel once again first over the top with Armouray in second.
04:26The French time trial champion would win the mountain's classification
04:30as long as Pogaccia, Buetrago or Higuita didn't take maximum points on the final climb.
04:38Well, the breakaway still believed in their chances.
04:40En masse put Romeo to work on the run into the Côte du Mont-Sény,
04:44the Spanish ruler emptying the tank for his leader.
04:49That enabled the chasers to catch Van der Poel with just over 16km to go.
04:54Romeo still hammering on the pedals and he would come to an absolute standstill
04:59once they hit the climb itself.
05:04Van der Poel also sitting up and they were soon caught by the peloton,
05:08now led by UAE.
05:11Only six left at the front, Van Hills, Paripanch, Healy, Mas, Kuss and Martinez
05:17and it was Mas who launched an incisive attack after all that work from Romeo.
05:21Martinez was the only man who could follow the Spaniards.
05:28Well, Uno X then suddenly upping the tempo again in the GC group
05:31which caught a few riders out.
05:33Oh, and a crash in the group as they go uphill.
05:38Sixth-placed Paul Sexass was among those to hit the deck
05:41and it wouldn't be easy to close the gap again,
05:43especially with Johanesson making his move.
05:46A few minutes later it was Remco Evenepoel who attacked with Vingegaard and Pogacar on the wheel.
05:53Florian Lipovic not able to follow.
05:56And now an attack from Martinez.
06:02Big move by the Frenchman.
06:05Lenny Martinez with a stinging attack at the front leaving Mas in his dust.
06:11And there was then more action in the GC group before the summit with Vingegaard attacking
06:17but Pogacar was right on the wheel.
06:23And Vingegaard decides it's time to go.
06:27Attack of Jonas Vingegaard and Pogacar matches.
06:30At this point everybody in the breakaway had been caught except Martinez
06:36who still had 45 seconds over the top two.
06:39The 21-year-old would have to dig deep for his third win of the season
06:43after successes at Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie.
06:46The Frenchman maintaining his lead though at the summit.
06:51There were still five kilometers to cover across this plateau
06:54but Pogacar and Vingegaard weren't chasing too hard
06:57and Martinez would be able to celebrate another impressive victory.
07:03He joined the breakaway today.
07:08Absolute elation for this rider.
07:12The 21-year-old from Cannes in France.
07:16From a family of cyclists he takes his third World Tour victory of this season.
07:22Lenny Martinez, elation for the Frenchman as he takes the final stage.
07:32Well this hasn't necessarily been the week Lenny Martinez was hoping for in terms of GC
07:37but the Bahrain victorious man finished it on a high note with his ninth career win.
07:42All three of his victories this season have come at World Tour stage races
07:45and he was the only French stage winner this week.
07:53It's good to get a stage win but I came here for GC.
07:56In the end things didn't go very well overall
07:59but with the team we managed to save the week in these last few days.
08:02Martinez winning by 34 seconds on the final day from Vingegaard and Pogacar
08:08with Jorgensen and Evanapal leading in the rest.
08:11Sextas dropped just over two minutes after his crash coming in 13th
08:15and the week belonged to Pogacar.
08:17The fans are here. Only positives this week.
08:26A lot. A lot of positives.
08:29And all the negatives will turn into positives so all good.
08:34Victory number 99 for Pogacar whose final winning margin was 59 seconds over Vingegaard.
08:39No change in the top five today but Jorgensen and Mas both moved up with Sextas slipping to eighth.
08:54Pogacar also finished with the green jersey.
08:57He and van der Poel both took ten points on the final day
09:00but the Slovenian won it by virtue of his three stage wins.
09:03Bruno Amorai did enough to snatch the polka dot jersey though.
09:10The Frenchman finishing three clear of Pogacar after picking up 17 on this final stage.
09:20And Lipovic rounded out his impressive week by finishing as the best young rider ahead of Evanapal and Sextas.
09:25We wish Bardi all the best for his retirement and we look forward to seeing these guys at the Tour de France when it kicks off on July the 5th.
09:40Join us then and thanks for watching.
09:41Thanks for watching.
