Pogačar deals further blow to rivals with imperious stage 7 victory at the Dauphiné

With another searing performance, Tadej Pogačar made it two victories in as many days at the Critérium du Dauphiné, as he further strengthened his grip on the yellow jersey as race leader. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider attacked with 12km of the final mountain to ride on stage 7, quickly distancing his rivals and going alone to the finish.

As Pogačar made his acceleration, not even Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) could hold the wheel, with the Dane forced into a lengthy but futile pursuit of the world champion. At first, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) united with Vingegaard to mount a chase, but Vingegaard was too strong for the white jersey holder, and he would ride to second place over the line.

Pogačar, meanwhile, settled into his rhythm and powered his way to the top of Valmeinier 1800 (16.2km at 6.8%). The yellow jersey wearer claimed the 98th victory of his career, extending his advantage in the lead of the race to 1:01 heading into Sunday’s final stage.

Earlier in the stage, Visma-Lease a Bike had tried to gain the upper hand on the Emirati squad. Setting a hard pace on the Col de la Croix de Fer, the team of Vingegaard maintained healthy numbers as those by Pogačar’s side dwindled. However, there was to be no isolating the world champion, with Pavel Sivakov producing a gritty display to maintain UAE Team Emirates-XRG control on the day.

The French rider came to the fore as the peloton marched towards the final climb of the day, with just the soon-to-be-retired Romain Bardet (Team Picnic-PostNL) out front, looking to end his career on a high. In the end, it was not to be for Bardet, with the Sivakov-led peloton sweeping the Frenchman aside some 13km from the summit of the final climb. It was at this point that the pace truly began to be ramped up, as Sivakov looked to pre-empt an attack from his team leader.

Just a kilometre later, Pogačar made good on the plan, launching a ferocious acceleration that not one rider could match. Despite his best efforts, Vingegaard was forced to watch the world champion ride out of sight, as the gap between the leader on the road and those behind soon exceeded 10 seconds.

For the rest of the climb, Pogačar pressed home his advantage and ensured that nobody would catch his wheel before the line. It was a domineering display that saw the race leader pick up his third victory of the week at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Only Sunday’s stage stands between the Slovenian and his first Dauphiné title.

Pogačar: “We had our own plan but then Visma started to go full gas on the first category climb and actually before the start, I didn’t know, but this climb I definitely did before and it brought back memories.

“Today we wanted to take control on all the climbs but Visma tried with all the attacks. I was pretty happy with how Pavel was riding today, and the team, so it was a sort of defence not to get attacked by everyone from Visma. I launched it and I maintained a good pace to the top, so I am happy that I could defend the jersey like this.

“Visma attacked towards the top of the Croix de Fer, then I think they wanted to drop me on the downhill. When Pavel came back, he took control again and it was all fine. On the last climb, Pavel said that he could not do much longer so he prepared me for the attack. I just committed because I didn’t want any attacks from behind.

“For sure today, Jonas [Vingegaard] was really strong, but I also didn’t want to go too deep for myself. It was super hot and a long climb, luckily I had enough time to ease up in the last kilometre a little bit and recover.”

Critérium du Dauphiné 2025 stage 7 results

1. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 4:10:00

2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +14″

3. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1:21

General classification after Critérium du Dauphiné stage 7

1. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 25:44:58

2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1:01

3. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +2:21