So close, but so far - but no regrets. At the last moment Matteo Jorgenson (Visma Rees-a-Bike) goes inside the whiskers that beat Primo Logric (Bora Hansgrohe), the leader of the Critérium du Dauphine, and attacks him on the Plateau de Guglière, the last climb of the race, to the pedalstress. Each time Rourke approached the Slovenian star.

In the exciting finale, Jorgenson claimed a second on stage after Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadier), and as a result, Logric's time gap meant Jorgenson's courageous last-ditch attack, but proved to be enough to go from second to first as well. It was proved. 

Finally, the time of the last bite between Slovenes and Americans, however, proved to be impossible to eliminate. The Americans had to settle to stay in the runner-up, but it was much closer than anyone had expected to the previously untouchable Logric, the winner of the previous 2 Alpine stages.

It was a dream year for Giorgenson, who claimed the overall win at Paris-Nice and a wonderful victory at Dwald's Door Vlaanderen, confirming his all-round talent by taking what constitutes a comprehensive victory at the Dauphine. The Americans continued to miss their chances in the mountains, even after the best TT results of all time in the mid-distance race with the Clock on Wednesday. Instead, he far exceeded his own expectations on the 3 Alpine stages and became the first American to stand on the podium since Tejay van Garderen won 2019, second only to Jakob Fuglsang in 2nd place. In the process, he has left everyone wondering what he might be able to achieve at the rapidly approaching Tour de France, too.

"No, no regrets," he told reporters after the final stage of the Dauphine. "It was a very difficult race, but I have to be happy with my performance this week. It was a really good day and I leave super happy here.

Rogic was dropped by five kilos to go to the super-difficult Gurriel, but Jorgenson said he had also "already reached the limit" at that point, but he did his best. As he puts it, "I just found something else.""

"Tiesj [Benoot, teammates] was motivating me, saying it was possible and I just tried to make the absolute best effort, not much to say. It was close.

Jorgenson said it as early as the first cat, Corderafor Class de Monmin.It was clear that the day's 1 climb would be a very intense battle stage with a break going on and a lot of attacks from the overall top ten riders.

"I was following a few things and I felt that Primow was a little to the limit there. Also, Tiesj got the same feeling and then he was motivating me. I also woke up this morning and felt that the overall win was still possible."

"I feel better all week, on all stages, and I have a great appreciation to my coach Tim Heemskerk for that. He really knows what he is doing.

For Gurriel's last five-kilogram crunch, [Lawrence] "Deplace attacked and put everyone to the limit, it felt like, or at least me."

"Then, when Carlos [Rodriguez] went on top of it, Primoc didn't follow and Carlos didn't go down to the GC so much that he was struggling a bit and I was struggling a lot, but I followed it. I didn't look back, but I heard on the radio he was away and from there I just had to make sure.

Benefiting from hindsight, Jorgenson probably played things a little differently. However, he said he is as interested in getting Roglië ahead of him as he is worried about triggering a strong reaction from Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech).

As he pointed out, Gee is a very unknown quantity, so that the 3rd Gee in the whole suddenly overtook him and probably couldn't push him down with the GC Only when Gee cracked a little, he opened the throttle permanently.

"I was just trying to stay inside myself, but once he was dropped, I gave it all to the line," he concluded. "It didn't work out today, but it could be next year.”