08/06/2023

Brilliant Jonas Vingegaard takes solo victory on stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné to take overall race lead

Jonas Vingegaard has taken a brilliant solo victory on stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, taking the overall lead of the race in the process.

Stage 5 sees the peloton return to it's hilly challenges. A tough day, it's one where the start is flat but the finale is quite difficult. It features a tough 3.7-kilometre climb towards the finish where attacks may come.

Chaos at the end of the Criterium du Dauphiné time trial due to an error stating that Enric Mas had abandoned

A very strong breakaway went up the road. Six riders in total including Nils Politt (BORA - hansgrohe), Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Dstny), Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies) and Leon Heinschke (Team DSM).

With Politt just 2:34 down in the general classification, the timegap was held by the peloton at around 2:30/3:00.

Soudal - Quick-Step were burning through riders at the front of the bunch, trying to bring the breakaway back.

As the race reached the final climb of the day the leading bunch had just 18 seconds. Disaster then struck for Mikkel Bjerg who crashed at the worst possible time as the likes of Richard Carapaz, Julian Alaphilippe and Jonas Vingegaard accelerated up front.

Soon it was just Carapaz and Vingegaard up the road in a leading duo and their gap quickly grew past 30 seconds.

Vingegaard made his move as they crested the top of the climb however, and Carapaz had no response.

With Vingegaard riding into the race lead up front, the remaining GC riders were all waiting for someone else to do the chasing.