Formolo was clearly climbing the best out of the breakaway and left his erstwhile companions behind on the Col de la Madeleine as he made a lone bid for the finish.
The peloton crested the peak of the Col de la Madeleine just over five minutes in arrears of Formolo, with Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) the lone chaser for some thirty kilometres as he piloted the peloton for race leader
Formolo looked at times to be struggling as he pushed a big gear on the final climb of Montee de Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, but even a final surge from Roglič to gap his general classification rivals was not enough to catch the Italian, as he won the stage by 33 seconds.
“I was in the break from the start with eight guys, and already before the Col de la Madeleine I said ‘we only have three minutes – there’s no way to wait until the finish'," said Formolo.
"So I said to myself 'just ride your good rhythm on the Madeleine, and try and get some space between the bunch'. Then I actually thought the last climb started straight after the descent, but it was 10km up and down in the valley. That was really hard – I lost a lot of energy in the valley.
"On the last climb I didn’t know if I could make it. I was looking at the profile and saw the Madeleine was really hard then I saw this last climb was slightly up and down the whole time. I thought it would be impossible to make a big difference in the break so I’d better attack on the Madeleine, and then pray I came to the finish line.”
Roglič again showed he was the strongest of the general classification riders, pushing clear in the final run to the line after some powerful pace-setting from Sepp Kuss, taking some extra time on his major rivals for yellow. The Slovenian star currently holds a 14 second lead over Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) with Emanuel Buchmann (BORA-hansgrohe) in third 20 seconds adrift.
Chris Froome (Team INEOS) again struggled to show his best on the climbs, dropped with 12 kilometres remaining in the race. He wasn't the only one to register a below-par performance, with general classification stars Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Rigoberto Uran, Sergio Higuita (both EF Education First), Geraint Thomas (Team INEOS), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Tom Dumoulin, Steven Kruijswijk (both Jumbo-Visma, though they both worked to help Roglič) all conceding over a minute to Roglič.
The Criterium du Dauphine continues with a 154-kilometre stage from Ugine to Megeve, with another summit finish set for the climbers.
Stage 4 of the Criterium du Dauphine will be broadcast on SBS VICELAND from 11.05pm AEST.
