Once again Tadej Pogacar proved unstoppable in this Dauphine and with relative ease conquered the queen stage of the French race, finishing in Velmeinier. The Slovenian said that Visma-Lease a Bike tried to put pressure on him on every climb, but in the end he also had time to recover at the finish.

"We started with the idea of controlling all the climbs today," Pogacar explained. "But it didn't work, because Visma attacked several times. They did so just before the Croix de Fer finale, so we were forced to go on the defensive. In the subsequent descent, they continued to pressure me: I didn't like it, but this is modern cycling."

At the foot of the last climb, the Slovenian could only count on Pavel Sivakov and when his teammate finished his work, Pogacar attacked 12 kilometers from the summit. "I didn't want to be forced to parry Visma's attacks again, so I started alone. I launched myself and held on until the top. I'm happy to have managed to defend my jersey, which was our intention today."

Unlike yesterday, Jonas Vingegaard did not arrive at the finish line a minute behind the Slovenian, with just 14" separating the two. "Jonas was very strong. I didn't want to overdo it, it was a very hot and long climb, so fortunately I had enough advantage to slow down a bit in the last section and recover, but obviously when you look at your rivals' performances, you know that at the Tour they can be even stronger, but our team can also be stronger. Now I want to finish tomorrow's stage well and then start thinking about the Tour."