The second stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné had a very dramatic finish, as the day's breakaway succeeded and French veteran Alexis Vuillermoz managed to take the stage win in the sprint and also jumped into the race lead - a very important result for TotalEnergies.
The breakaway set off early in the day with Anders Skaarseth (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team), Alexis Vuillermoz (TotalEnergies), Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ), Kevin Vermaerke (Team DSM), Xandres Vervloesem (Lotto Soudal) and Anthony Delaplace (Arkéa Samsic). The group never got too big of a gap, but they went into the main climb of the day with a gap of around four minutes, which started rising as the group started ascending.
Team BikeExchange - Jayco tried to keep the pace low for Dylan Groenewegen to survive the climb, but he didn't succeed as the pace eventually ramped up with the work of Jumbo-Visma, INEOS Grenadiers and EF Education-EasyPost who started to work to cancel the concerning gap - with Trek - Segafredo joining later.
The Lotto Soudal rider was dropped from the front, but the quintet kept riding at a strong pace that forced the peloton to ride at an urgent pace, with the gap holding steady in the downhill into the final 15 kilometers. Lack of full commitment from Jumbo-Visma and lack of firepower around saw the gap rise to 40 seconds with five kilometers to go
The peloton came close however not close enough, as the five riders went into the final sprint together, where Olivier Le Gac launched his move early. Alexis Vuillermoz closed the gap to the Frenchman however despite that he still had the legs to go over and hold off Anders Skaarseth who finished the day second - with Le Gac third. Wout van Aert won the sprint for the remaining spots behind.
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