Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) put to bed any doubts surrounding his form ahead of the Tour de France with a dominant sprint win on stage 5 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in Villars-les-Dombes.
As the peloton navigated a wide road en route to the finish, Visma-Lease a Bike perfectly positioned their man, guiding him into the final kilometre with two lead-out men still to burn.
Netcompany Ineos slotted in between the yellow jerseys to try and launch Dorian Godon, but Van Aert didn't fret before kicking with 200 metres to go along the right-hand barrier.
The Belgian hit the front and was never passed, looking in full control as he beat Hugo Hofstetter (NSN) and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) to the line on Thursday.
This was his 53rd professional victory and his second of the season, with his first in 2026 coming at Paris-Roubaix.
"Of course, winning is always nice, and especially in a big race like this. So, I'm really happy with this stage win," said Van Aert after the finish, who still wasn't overly bullish about his form after struggling in the opening three stages.
"Probably my shape is not much different now, but the last two days were just a bit easier and suited me better with my current form. It was a difficult start, and it was even difficult today mentally.
"Sometimes it's painful after the crash I had just before this race, but with the team I have around me, and they were chasing the breakaway the whole day, I just had to try. Bruno Armirail was impressively strong on the front until the last few kilometres, and the other boys did an amazing job to bring me to the line, so I have to thank them. Really happy."
Van Aert is heading for his eighth Tour appearance in July, and based on how his current sprinting form is – albeit not against a stacked field of fast men here – he'll be eyeing that 11th stage win on one of the flat finishes.
"Honestly, sprints have been going pretty well already the whole year, and also the last few weeks on training, so in the sprint I was definitely confident I had a good chance," he said.
"But this is such a hard race with a lot of altitude meters and not many sprint teams, so every day is a bit of a question mark if it's possible to control in the bunch, because if 15 other teams want to go in the breakaway, you have no chance. But today we did a great job from the start, and we were able to have a break in the front that we could cut back."
Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) maintained his overall lead of the race by finishing safely in the front group, after a road stage was finally won by the peloton and not the breakaway.
The Frenchman will take the yellow jersey into a trio of brutal mountain stages which close out the eight days of racing, starting with a summit finish to Crest-Voland on Friday.
How it unfolded
After the 60km fight to get up the road on Wednesday's stage at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the breakaway formation on stage 5 was much simpler, with the only two categorised climbs of the stage both coming in the opening 10km.
Using the Côte de la Croix Blanche and Col de la Gachet to their advantage was a six-rider group which emerged at the front of the race with 192km to race: Pepijn Reijnderink (Soudal-QuickStep), Thibault Guernalec (TotalEnergies), Julen Arriola-Bengoa (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla), Hugo Houle (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Robbe Dhondt (Picnic PostNL).
They were allowed to extend their lead past two minutes, with the peloton happy with the configuration. Dhondt was the best-placed on GC, but posed no threat to Baudin's lead, having started Thursday's stage 15:00 down.
Although the rest of the stage featured no more categorised climbs, there were still plenty of up and down roads to tackle on the road to the bird park in Villars-les-Dombes, a site of one of Mark Cavendish's 35 Tour de France stage wins 10 years ago.
With fewer riders in front, the job of controlling should've been simpler than it was on stage 4, Visma-Lease a Bike, Cofidis, Bahrain Victorious and race leaders EF all among those who committed a rider near the front of the peloton.
While the break collaborated well together, the peloton was working hard to ensure their lead never got too large, likely fearing a repeat of yesterday's failed chase, and after the first three road stages all ended in success for the breakaway.
The pace was really ramped up in the final 25km, with more teams such as Lotto-Intermarché helping, and after four hours in front in the sunshine, the break started to realise their chance at victory was all but over.
With 11.8km to go, they were caught, and finally, all eyes could turn to the build-up for a bunch sprint finish.
A crucial turn at 3km to go prompted Cofidis' Benjamin Thomas to up the pace, showing off his track cycling prowess, leading the race onto a long straight road which went all the way to the finish.
Other teams tried to move to the front late on the wide finishing road, but none were as slick or powerful as Visma, who speared back to the lead with Per Strand Hagenes and Edoardo Affini piloting Van Aert after Armirail's mountain of work came to an end.
Under the flamme rouge, the Dutch team had full control, delivering Van Aert to the final 200m in prime position, allowing him to power to the victory. Riders behind, such as Hugo Hofstetter (NSN) tried to come around, but the Belgian looked unbeatable from the position he started sprinting, giving Visma their second win of the week and Van Aert his fifth career win at the renamed Dauphiné.
Results
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