Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar secured his first Criterium du Dauphine title after finishing third in Sunday’s final stage.
The reigning Tour de France and road world champion began the final day one minute and one second ahead of his closest rival Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard thanks to back-to-back stage wins on Friday and Saturday.
And the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider safely negotiated the 133.3km stage from Val-d’Arc to the Plateau du Mont-Cenis to finish alongside Vingegaard, 34 seconds behind stage winner Lenny Martinez.
“It’s been a really amazing week,” said Pogacar, who topped the overall standings by 58 seconds for his 99th professional win in stages, races and general classification leads – the most by an active rider.
“Once again today, the team did a great job. We managed to defend the [yellow] jersey and we can go home happy and prepare for the Tour [de France].
“There’s a lot of positives from this week and we turned all the negatives into positives, so it’s all good.
“There’s not much to do ahead of the Tour. I rest a bit, maybe some extra work for the time-trial, and then I’m ready.”
The 26-year-old becomes the third reigning world champion to win the race, after French pair Louison Bobet and Bernard Hinault in 1955 and 1981 respectively.
German Florian Lipowitz completed the overall podium ahead of Belgian Remco Evenepoel.
French rider Martinez, 21, got past Spaniard Enric Mas eight kilometres from the finish of the mountainous stage to add to his wins in the Tour de Romandie and Paris-Nice earlier this year.
Attention will now switch to the Tour de France which begins on Saturday, 5 July.
Meanwhile, Marlen Reusser defended the leader’s yellow jersey which she had held from the opening stage to win the women’s Tour de Suisse.
The Movistar rider held a three-second advantage over last year’s winner Demi Vollering going into Sunday’s 129km circuit around Kussnacht am Rigi and launched a solo attack with around 8km with Vollering unable to respond.
The opening stage of the men’s race – the final leading stage race before the Tour de France – was won by Frenchman Romain Gregoire thanks to a late solo breakaway.
Criterium du Dauphine stage eight results
1. L Martinez (Fra/Bahrain Victorious) 3hrs 34mins 18secs
2. J Vingegaard (Den/Team Visma-Lease a Bike) +34secs
3. T Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) same time
4. M Jorgenson (USA/Team Visma-Lease a Bike) +40secs
5. R Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) same time
Final Classification
1 T Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 29hrs 19mins 46secs
2 J Vingegaard (Den/Team Visma-Lease a Bike +59secs
3 F Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +2mins 38secs
4 R Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step +4 mins 21secs
5 T Halland Johannessen (Nor/Uno-X Mobility) +6mins 12mins
