Garmin Sharp's Andrew Talansky won the Critérium du Dauphiné by finishing ahead of Alberto Contador and Chris Froome,
With Alberto Contador snatching the race lead on stage seven from Chris Froome, the final 131.5 kilometres stage from Megève to Courchevel, was not going to be a parade.
A 23 man group comprising of David Lopez, Mikel Nieve, Richie Porte (Sky), Tanel Kangert, Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Dani Navarro, Yoann Bagot (Cofidis), Adam Yates (Orica GreenEdge), Igor Anton, John Gadret (Movistar), Romain Bardet, Alexis Gougeard, Jean-Christoph Péraud (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Jurgen Van den Broeck, Tony Gallopin, Pim Ligthart (Lotto Belisol), Kristjan Koren (Cannondale), Tejay van Garderen (BMC), Yuriy Trofimov (Katusha), Ryder Hesjedal, Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) and Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp-Endura) had formed after Tejay van Garderen led Bardet over the Côte de Domancy.
Being only 39 seconds down on Contador's time, Andrew Talansky was soon the virtual leader on the road. The Garmin Sharp rider was just behind as Koren led the riders over the Col des Saisies with 77kms and they were 2.35 ahead of the yellow jersey group which also contained Chris Froome in the points jersey and 2.35 on the peloton.
With the gap down to 2.32 and 22kms left in the pouring rain, first Nibali and then Contador got ahead in an attempt to close down Talansky.
Contador stormed past a BMC rider and then Konig and then flew down the descent, getting to within twenty seconds of Nibali with 11.3kms to go.
The Spaniard was still 1.13 back and was joined by Atapuma of BMC AS Froome, who had been feeling the effects of a crash on stage six and admitted to not having the legs at the end of the stage seven, dropped to 3,08 back.
With 4.1kms left, Contador had closed to under a minute and it stayed there going into the final two kilometres.
Contador caught Nibali on the final climb as Team Sky's Mikel Neive went off the front and won in 3.20.29 ahead of Bardet and Adam Yates
Talansky finished seven seconds back in fourth and the clock counted down as Contador finished a minute and fourteen seconds down to give Talansky a win over Contador by twenty seven seconds.
General Classification
1Talansky 31.08.08
2Contador +27
3 Van Den Broeck+35
4Kelderman +43
5 Bardet +1.20
6 Yates+2.05
7 Nibali +2.12
8Nieve +2.54
Talansky said to Eurosport: "You put your whole life into something and it is moments that make it worth it and this is why we do it for moments like this today.
"It was a hard start and Hesjedal rode on the front all day for me. We saw the opportunity and we had to try.
"I am not one of the favourites for the Tour De France that is a different ride."