Huge relief for Aleksandr Vlasov after Primoz Roglic struggles on final Dauphine stage: "The most important thing by far is that we won the race"

BORA - hansgrohe have put on a very strong collective effort this past week at the Criterium du Dauphiné to take the win with Primoz Roglic. Aleksandr Vlasov was a key part of this triumph, even though both struggled in the final stage and the yellow jersey looked for some moments to be slipping out of the shoulders of the Slovenian.

The German team looked in control all throughout the day, with Roglic also carrying a gap of over a minute to Matteo Jorgenson into the Plateau des Glières. However what looked safe until the final climb stopped as Carlos Rodríguez - who ultimately won the stage - launched an attack still a few kilometers away from the finish.

“I felt good at the beginning, but I had a really hard time on the final climb. And so did he, but luckily we were able to save the yellow jersey," Vlasov said of Roglic in a post-race interview. "So job done. I don’t really care that I was passed. The most important thing by far is that we won the race.”

INEOS really put in a brilliant effort to split the GC group completely, and as Laurens de Plus launched a very long acceleration, the BORA riders struggled and Vlasov was dropped, finding difficulties earlier than previous days. And a few minutes later, so did Roglic when a few riders still had the legs in front.

“It was quite stressful. It was really close. I wanted to ride to him to help, but that didn’t work. It was a difficult moment, but we survived," Vlasov admitted. Vlasov arrived ninth to the finish line alongside Remco Evenepoel, 58 seconds behind Rodríguez and Matteo Jorgenson who was close to wrecking the German team's plans. In the overall classification, Vlasov descended from fourth to sixth in the GC, but that was only a small detail in the bigger picture.