Criterium du Dauphine: Bouwman wins stage 3 as the break holds off the sprinters

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In the age of the radio earpiece, it has become increasingly rare for a day earmarked for the sprinters to end in anything other than a mass finish, and when Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and his five breakaway companions slipped clear inside the opening two kilometres of stage 3 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, it seemed as if they were merely providing some early entertainment.

A little over four hours later, the same sextet was still lingering just ahead of the peloton, defying the odds as they hold off the pursuit of the sprinters' teams. When the race reached Tullins, Bouwman emerged as the surprise stage winner, outsprinting Evaldas Siskevicius (Delko Marseille Provence) and Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) to claim the first win of his professional career.

"I still can't believe it," Bouwman said afterwards. "I know that my girlfriend, my parents and all my friends are looking on television and this is my first pro win, and it's in the Dauphiné too, which is a really big race. I can't believe it."

Bouwman began the day in the polka dot jersey of king of the mountains, having spent most of stage 2 off the front of the bunch as part of the échapée matinale. The Dutchman was out to repeat the feat on Tuesday, and he escaped up the road inside the opening two kilometres of the stage. He was joined in the endeavour by his teammate Alexey Vermeulen, Bryan Nauleau (Direct Energie), Frederik Backaert, and the Delko Marseille Provence duo of Quentin Pacher and Edvaldas Siskevicius.

"I came here with the goal to go in the break. I'm not a rider who can go with the best climbers or best sprinters, so today we had a really strong breakaway, with everyone pulling very hard," Bouwman said.

The sextet covered some 47 kilometres in a brisk opening hour of racing, establishing a maximum advantage of 6:45 as the Lotto Soudal team of race leader Thomas De Gendt was content to allow them some early leeway.

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A rare mistake

Shortly afterwards, the sprinters' teams began to take up the reins of the pursuit, with Nacer Bouhanni's Cofidis cohort the first to make inroads into the break's advantage, clipping it back to rather more manageable dimensions. When Arnaud Démare's FDJ squad and Alexander Kristoff's Katusha-Alpecin teammates joined the chase, it seemed as though the stage was heading ineluctably towards a bunch finish.

With 50 kilometres to go, Bouwman et al had a buffer of three minutes, and that had dropped to two minutes by the time they entered the final 30 kilometres. At that juncture, the sprinters' teams were, if anything, concerned that they might peg back the escapees too soon, and face a late flurry of opportunistic attacks. The six leaders were allowed to linger a little further. It was a costly – and, at this level, very rare – miscalculation.

"In the end, with 20km to go, we believed we could make it," Bouwman said. "I told my teammate Alexey that I felt really strong and so he pushed really hard on the front."

The cohesion of the break was undoubtedly helped by the fact that LottoNL-Jumbo and Delko Marseille Provence had two riders apiece in the move, while Backaert and Nauleau pulled their weight throughout, too. Their smooth collaboration saw the escapees reach the final 15 kilometres still with 1:40 in hand on the bunch, and deep into the final 10 kilometres, their margin still hovered above a minute.

Behind, teams including Dimension Data and Bora-Hansgrohe put their shoulders to the wheel, but no one team was willing – or able – to take command for a long stint, and the pursuit was a fitful one. When a Team Sky delegation moved fluidly towards the front in the final five kilometres, simply to keep Chris Froome out of harm's way, it was clear that the sprinters' teams had not calibrated their efforts correctly.

A late surge from FDJ did little to change affairs. The escapees still had a buffer of 40 seconds with two kilometres to go, and it was testimony to their unity that they maintained most of that advantage by the time they passed under the flamme rouge with a kilometre to go.

Even with the stage win on the line, there were no late attacks among the escapees, and instead they entered the finishing straight together to sprint it out for the win. A tiring Vermeulen led out the sprint, and his effort was enough to string out the group. Bouwman duly launched his effort from fourth position, and he had enough in the tank to claim victory ahead of Siskevicius, while Backaert had to settle for third.

"In the end I made it and so I'm really happy. It was perfect," said the 23-year-old Bouwman, a native of Ulft in the Netherlands and a professional since 2016.

Eleven seconds later after Bouwman had crossed the line, Démare led home the peloton, pipping Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) to 7th place. De Gendt finished safely in the body of the peloton to retain his overall lead for another day. The Belgian carries an advantage of 48 seconds over Alex Domont (AG2R La Mondiale) into Wednesday's individual time trial, a 23.5-kilometre test from La Tour-du-Pin to Bourgoin-Jallieu where the general classification contenders will be expected to come to the fore.

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