Holding onto his GC lead over the Critérium du Dauphiné's mountainous final stage was never going to be easy for BMC's Richie Porte, but attacks from all sides complicated matters perhaps even more than expected. When the dust settled on the Plateau de Solaison, Porte came up just short of his first career overall win in the race, relinquishing yellow to Astana's Jakob Fuglsang.
The 32-year-old Australian didn't mince words after the defeat, criticising what he saw as negative racing, but neither did he allow himself many regrets. After all, even dropping to second overall, he did handily best several major Tour de France rivals in the marquee Tour tune-up race with less than a month to go until the main event.
"It's obviously bitterly disappointing to lose by 10 seconds but I was against it from the start," Porte said. "There were teams that were happy to see me not win and sacrifice their own chances but I guess that's racing. It's maybe a lesson learnt for July but I'm happy with where I'm at."
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The Dauphiné's many GC hopefuls came into the short but challenging eighth stage guns blazing, putting Porte under pressure from the start. Fuglsang was the day's big winner, of course, but the other GC contenders did plenty of attacking too. Sky's Chris Froome, who started the stage in second, jumped off the front early on, recovered after being pegged back, and then prepared for another strike.
Movistar's Alejandro Valverde and Astana's Fabio Aru attacked on the Col de la Colombière. By this point lacking teammates, an isolated Porte was left to chase. After biding their time in his wheel, several rivals then duly attacked to form what turned out to be the winning selection.
Porte vented his frustration after the defeat, wondering if things might have been different had he been able to rely on a bit more team support, and also suggesting his rivals had perhaps ridden simply to put someone else onto the top step of the final podium.
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