Critérium du Dauphiné stage 8 live - Punchy mountain stage to finish the race
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37.5km to go The next climb begins It's the Col de Cucheron. It's a category-2 ascent, measuring 7.7km at 6.2%
Dylan van Baarle is doing the work for Jumbo-Visma. They also have Attila Valter - who produced a remarkable turn yesterday - alongside Vingegaard, while Benoot is of course up the road in the break. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Further down the climb, Ineos were pacing hard through Omar Fraile. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Castroviejo is still on the attack. Here's a shot of his move a little earlier. I'll be honest - I'm not sure what he's doing. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Jumbo-Visma lead a heavily reduced bunch downhill, having crested the Granier 1:15 in arrears.
Onto the descent and Alaphilippe is going hell for leather.
Top of Col du Granier - 47.7km to go The four leaders - Alaphilippe, Benoot, Ciccone, Champoussin - reach the summit of today's only HC climb, with Benoot nudging forward to lead them over the top but without any contest for KOM points.
Jonathan Castroviejo has attacked. Ineos were pacing earlier on this climb but they look to now want to fire a rider up the road as Jumbo-Visma take the reins.
50km to go Champoussin has made it back to the front with just over a kilometre to the top of the Granier.
Benoot and Ciccone come back to Alaphilippe. They're 1:50 up on the peloton.
And now Benoot and Ciccone lose contact! Alaphilippe is alone in the lead on the Col du Granier.
Up front, the next to lose contact are Oliveira, De Cruz and Champoussin.
Damage in the peloton as Ineos lift the pace! Richard Carapaz, Mikel Landa, David Gaudu... all dropped
And now Campenaerts drops as well. He might just have done enough to secure the polka-dots but it's not out of reach and is now out of his hands.
Bonnamour and Trentin are dropped from the breakaway.
Ineos Grenadiers take it up on the Granier.
Here's what we're dealing with. The Granier is the first of those peaks and is followed by two more hard climbs. (Image credit: ASO)
The real climbing on this final day is about to begin as we hit the Hors-Catégorie climb of the Col du Granier (9.6km at 8.6%).
65km to go Campenaerts leads the breakaway through the intermediate sprint in Pontcharra, with the gap to the peloton increasing to 2:45.
68km to go The gap grows to 2:30 on the valley road.
Jonas Vingegaard in the bunch. It's almost impossible to see him losing that yellow jersey today. (Image credit: Getty Images)
85km to go After the uncategorised climb, the gap rises to two minutes, but this breakaway isn't gaining enough ground to go after the stage win.
The gap grows to 90 seconds on the descent.
We're descending now, then we have an uncategorised climb and a largely downhill 25km run through the valley before the three big climbs that precede our finale on the stinging ramps to the Bastille fortress above Grenoble.
It's Bora-Hansgrohe leading the peloton. They have Jai Hindley in fourth place overall and they're riding solidly to keep this gap just above the one-minute mark.
KOM result at Col des Mouilles 1. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), 5 pts
2. Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), 3 pts
3. Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), 2 pts
4. Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), 1 pt
110km to go Campenaerts bags the maximum points at the top of the climb ahead of Ciccone, extending his lead in the mountains classification.
No real fresh action on the Col des Mouilles, as the nine escapees continue at 1:15 ahead of the bunch. They've not been fully let go, and it's not fully settled, but the attacks have at least dried up.
After just under 40km of racing, we're about to start the second climb of the day, the Col des Mouilles (3.9km at 7%).
115km to go Junction up front, as the three-man chase group joins the six leaders to make a new, strong, nine-man breakaway Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick-Step) Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) David De la Cruz (Astana Qazaqstan) Clément Champoussin (Arkéa Samsic) Franck Bonnamour (AG2R Citroën) Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma) Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates)
The peloton has eased a little. The gap to the six leaders goes out above the minute-mark, with the three chasers now just 10 seconds behind.
This has been a crazy start and this whole stage could be a chaotic test of Jumbo-Visma's control. They've looked to get Benoot up the road, possibly as a passenger and insurance policy, but they're also looking to pace the bunch to keep things reasonably in check. Of the breakaway riders, Alaphilippe is the biggest GC threat, 7th overall at 3:48.
Christophe Laporte leads the bunch for Jumbo-Visma, 45 seconds behind the front of the race.
More counter-attacks now. Jumbo-Visma have decided to fire a rider up in Tiesj Benoot. He's on the move with Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) and Matteo Trentin (UAE). Andrey Amador (EF) was there but no longer.
Here's a shot of our breakaway, with Alaphilippe on the front and the polka-dots of Campenaerts just behind. (Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton is close at hand and these counters are shut down. That latest four-man move, plus the Wright-Craddock-Grossschartner move, are absorbed back into the pack, leaving the six-man break out front.
Another counter-attack sets off now - Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost), Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), Mathieu Burgaudeau (Total Energies), Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa Samsic).
Three more attackers looking to bridge to the breakaway Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Felix Grossschartner (UAE Team Emirates) and Lawson Craddock (Jayco-AlUla)
The bunch follows at 30 seconds.
Here's the order, and KOM points, over the top of the Col de Pinet 1. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), 5 pts
2. Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), 3 pts
3. Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Ste), 2 pts
4. Clément Champoussin (Arkéa Samsic), 1 pt
5. David De la Cruz (Astana Qazaqstan)
6. Franck Bonnamour (AG2R Citroën)
So we have six riders with a very small margin as we approach the top of the first climb after 15km of racing.
The Frenchman is well suited to the double-digit gradients of the final climb and he's trying to fire over to the break with David De la Cruz (Astana Qazaqstan). They make it.
Julian Alaphilippe attacks!
Clement Champoussin (Arkea-Samsic) and now Franck Bonnamour (AG2R) attack and bridge to Ciccone and Campenaerts.
Ciccone and Campenaerts go clear as the rest of the break is swallowed up.
A chaotic start here and the bunch is less than 10 seconds behind this dangerous breakaway attempt.
Vercher and Van den Bossche are dropped from the break now.
Big riders jumping the small gap to the breakaway! Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Attila Valter (Jumbo-Visma) infiltrate the break.
Urianstad and Garofoli are already dropped from the breakaway.
After all of 2km on the flat, the road has been going uphill here and it's properly climbing now for the first of the day's categorised climbs, the Côte de Pinet (6.3km at 6.1%).
Gaudu joins the leading trio, along with Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost), Brent Van Moer (Lotto-Dstny), Matteo Vercher (TotalEnergies), Marco Brenner (Team DSM), Fabio Van den Bossche (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Gianmarco Garofoli (Astana Qazaqstan).
David Gaudu (FDJ) goes on the attack. A big name but he's had a poor Dauphiné and is nearly seven minutes down on GC.
Campenaerts gets himself into an early move, with Franck Bonnamour (AG2R Citroën) and Martin Urianstad (Uno X).
We're off The flag is waved and the final stage of the Dauphiné is underway. It should be a big battle for the breakaway given today's parcours.
Here was the start line a little earlier, Jonas Vingegaard in yellow alongside Victor Campenaerts who earned the polka-dots with his solo mountain breakaway yesterday. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Before we get going, now's the time to catch up on yesterday's action. Stage 7 report, full standings, and plenty of nice mountain pics in the link below. Critérium du Dauphiné: Jonas Vingegaard solos to victory atop Croix de Fer
Another stupidly early start today and the riders are already rolling. They're in the neutral zone now and racing should be underway shortly.
Source: Cyclingnews
