Wout van Aert wins stage five of Critérium du Dauphiné in incredibly dramatic finale

Jumbo-Visma has been working every single day to have Wout van Aert in the discussion to the sprints, and today he has won his second stage at the Critérium du Dauphiné after a furious finale in which the breakaway was caught already mid-sprint.

A day that was dangerous and provided opportunities to the breakaway due to the rolling terrain and favourable wind, early in the stage there were splits as the peloton rode a strong pace. Five riders ended up going up the road: Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Jan Bakelants (Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux), Fabien Doubey (TotalEnergies), Sebastian Schönberger and Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels- KTM). The latter dropped back as the gap was tightly kept throughout the day.

However when it mattered, the peloton began struggling to close down the gap despite the work of Jumbo-Visma and Team BikeExchange - Jayco. With a tailwind and rolling terrain the pace was furious in the peloton for the last half hour in order to cancel the move that had 35 seconds with 10 kilometers to go.

Once again Dylan Groenewegen was dropped in the ascents, as INEOS Grenadiers took to the front aswell to add to the workload. The gap came down slowly but for a long time it seemed as if the scale was pointing towards the break, and the group entered the final kilometer with some seconds of lead.

Benjamin Thomas launched his sprint and got a small gap over his companions as Christophe Laporte launched Wout van Aert from behind who made his dash to the line early. The break were caught in the very final meters of the stage, and van Aert was barely taken at the finish line by Jordi Meeus who finished a narrow second place. Ethan Hayter sprinted to third place.