Dauphine-Libere: Clement Takes Stage Eight; Valverde Wraps Up Overall

The eighth and final stage of the 2009 Dauphine-Libere took riders over the very steep Saint-Bernard-de-Touvet, which made for a spectacular showing from several riders in the peloton.

Earlier in the day, a massive group of 28 riders set off to outpace the peloton controlled by race-leader Alejandro Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne team. 

Of them, world time-trial champion and Dauphine Stage Four winner Bert Grabsch (Columbia) tried a solo attempt at outpacing the breakaway. While he held more than two minutes over the breakaway, which in turn had five minutes on the peloton over the flatter parts of the course, the heavily muscled time-trialist quickly lost ground when the road turned upward on the Touvet, and he started the inevitable drift backwards. 

After that, the Touvet brought out who had the best chance of winning the stage.  Timmy Duggan (Garmin), a rider who is not usually a protagonist on the Pro Tour circuit, shot out of the breakaway on the steep ten percent average gradient, and was alone in front for several kilometers.

He was soon joined by Stef Clement (Rabobank), where the two crossed the peak together and began ravenously snaking down the descent.

Behind in the peloton, more fireworks were being lit. As the classification heavyweights Alberto Contador (Astana), Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), and Alejandro Valverde climbed the Touvet, Evans began to put in repeated attacks.

One right after the other in rapid-fire succession, Evans stood up on the bike and accelerated away from his Spanish companions, and every time, Contador was right behind, as was Valverde, responding to every surge.

Evans in the past has not been known for attacking. As more of a time-trialist, his past successes in multi-day races have come from smoking the competition in the time-trials and then following the wheels of his competitors in the mountains. 

This is the strategy that has gotten two consecutive runner-up finishes in the Tour de France in 2007 and 2008.

However, Evans clearly showed, with his newfound attacking prowess, that he is no longer content with following. He wants to achieve the top step of the podium in the Tour next month, not just settle for the bridesmaid position yet again. 

He might not have succeeded in dropping Valverde and making up his 16-second deficit in this race, but he will be taking this confidence into the Tour de France.

Up ahead, the breakaway riders Clement and Duggan were joined by Sebastian Joly (Francaise des Jeux), and the three riders quickly came up on the finish with enough of a margin that they knew they could fight for the win and not worry much about those chasing behind.

One kilometer from the finish, Joly made a flying break for it, but Clement reeled him in quickly with Duggan on his wheel. 

Clement made a well-timed sprint for the line and Duggan could not get around him.  Clement took the stage win ahead of Duggan and Joly.

Valverde rolled across the line in the peloton about two minutes later and secured his second consecutive overall victory in the Dauphine-Libere.