2017 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 6 Results & Recap
Stage 6 of the 2017 Critérium du Dauphiné is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Fuglsang wins stage 6 of the Criterium du Dauphine
Porte moves into yellow jersey
Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) pipped Richie Porte (BMC Racing) by less than a tire length to take victory on stage 6 of the Criterium du Dauphine Friday. The Danish rider spent the latter part of the race working with teammate Fabio Aru on the HC climb Mont du Chat, but the Sicilian didn’t have the legs in the closing kilometres to challenge Chris Froome (Team Sky) or Richie Porte.
“There's been a lot of bad luck for our team this year, but finally everything seems to come together. We start to be competitive. Luckily it's at the right time just before the Tour de France. I like to ride the Dauphiné like this, being two guys at the front with the two favorites for the Tour. It's really nice to win here for the first time. It's great. It's the success of the team, not only Fabio and me but all the guys who worked before the main climb and protected us in the past few days.”
Off the descent to the finish in La Motte-Servolex, the four leaders had about a minute on a small group containing Alejandro Valverde and Alberto Contador. Froome started winding up his sprint early, nearly putting Porte into the barriers in the process but still took home third place.
After the stage, Porte moved into first on GC, while Froome sits behind the Australian, 39 seconds back. Fuglsang’s performance raised him 17 places to third place, 1 minute and 15 seconds down.
“The team has been fantastic from km 0,” Porte said after the stage. “We didn't get much help until AG2R-La Mondiale rode at the front of the peloton. It's an incredible feeling to get the yellow-blue jersey. There were a lot of attacks in the climb but we stayed calm. I'm just happy to come there with Chris Froome, Jakob Fuglsang and Fabio Aru. It was a good stage with a crazy descent. I'm in a good place. It's nice to have the jersey but the next two days will be super hard. However, I've got the team to try and finish it up on Sunday.”
How it transpired
After an active start, Serge Pauwels (Team Dimension Data), Alberto Bettiol (Cannondale Drapac Team), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Oliver Naesen (AG2R-La Mondiale), Thierry Hupond (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) and Anthony Turgis (Cofidis, Solutions Crédits) broke away at the nine kilometre mark.
It didn’t take long for the six riders to gain a large advantage before the first KOM, the Côte de Corlier. The peloton was content to take it easy before they reached the toughest climb of the Dauphine and allowed the breakaway a max of more than eight minutes at times.
Over the top of Côte de Corlier Serge Pauwels picked up 2 points for first, followed by Alberto Bettiol, who received 1 point. Meanwhile, BMC decided enough time had passed and started setting pace in the bunch.
At 81 kilometres into the stage, the gap is was at eight minutes and 25 seconds.
AG2R moved to the front of the peloton despite having teammate Oliver Naesen being in the break. They were working for Roman Bardet, who was one of the riders predicted to win.\nWith 40 kilometres to go, the gap fell to inside seven minutes as the leaders hit the second climb of Côte de Jongieux. Again, Serge Pauwels hs scored the only KOM point awarded atop the climb.\nBy the time the leaders hit the Mont du Chat, the gap was quickly coming down to inside five minutes. From there, the racing really started as BMC set a swift pace up the lower slopes automatically dropping riders left and right, including De Gendt who popped off the back with 22 km to go.
Movistar then launched Valverde up the road, marking the first real attack on the HC climb. While up ahead, two riders remain in the lead group: Serge Pauwels (Team Dimension Data) and Alberto Bettiol (Cannondale Drapac Team).
Valverde was eventually pulled back into to the main group containing the GC favorites. That was when Aru put in a massive attack a few kilometres from the summit and went solo over the top with a 10 second lead on Porte, Froome and Fuglsang.
Despite Froome putting pressure on his closest rivals on the tricky descent, the four riders reformed on the run in to the finish.
Top 5 on the stage 6: 1. Jakob Fuglsang | 2. Richie Porte | 3. Chris Froome | 4. Fabio Aru | 5. Alejandro Valverde, at 50”
GC: 1. Richie Porte (BMC) | 2. Chris Froome (SKY) at 39” | 3. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team) 1’15”\n
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