"Roglic won and I did my best. I felt very good, so I can be happy with that" - Giulio Ciccone impresses with runner-up result in first Dauphine mountain stage

Giulio Ciccone was the surprising number two of the sixth stage in the Critérium du Dauphiné. The Lidl-Trek climber was only worse to BORA - hansgrohe's Primoz Roglic, who had more energy in his legs for the final sprint.

In the run-up to the final climb of Le Collet d'Allevard, it was Ciccone who addressed his teammates via the team radio. "I said I felt good and Mads Pedersen did everything perfectly. I have to thank him very much for his effort," said the Italian climber in press communication. "But what more can I say? Not very much."

"Roglic won and I did my best. I felt very good, so I can be happy with that," says Ciccone. "I tried to follow Roglic twice, after which he set a very high pace. We then joined Aleksandr Vlasov, who was riding in front of us, and after that they continued to ride a high pace. That meant I was already a bit on the limit when he started sprinting."

Ultimately, Ciccone finished three seconds behind Roglič. This great performance sees him make a nice jump from 28th before today all the way to 11th place in the general classification, currently 2:46 behind the Slovenian yellow jersey wearer, but only 15 seconds short of number 10 Jack Haig.