Froome wins Dauphiné stage in Valmorel

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Chris Froome (Team Sky) won stage five, took the race leader's yellow jersey at the Critérium du Dauphiné and confirmed he is the absolute favourite for this year's Tour de France with a well-timed, perfectly executed acceleration to the finish in Valmorel.

The Kenyan-born Briton let his teammates set a high pace on the fast climb and then coolly chased down a tepid attack by Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) before then passing the Spaniard and breakaway rider Matthew Busche (RadioShack Leopard) in sight of the line.

Australia's Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) lost contact with the lead group 2.5km from the finish and so lost the race lead to Froome, who now looks on track to win the week-long stage race and so start the Tour de France as the rider to beat.

Dennis fought to limit his losses but finished 59 seconds behind Froome. He now leads teammate Richie Porte by 52 seconds in the overall classification. Dennis is third at 54 seconds and has the consolation of retaining the best young rider's white jersey. Fellow Australian Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) is fourth overall at 1:37 after finishing fifth on the stage. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) finished fourth on the stage and moved up to 12th overall at 2:47, while Contador is 13th at 2:49.

Friday's 143km sixth stage is from La Léchère to Grenoble and includes four minor climbs in the second half of the stage.

Things get much more serious at the weekend but will probably suit Team Sky's dominant race tactics. Stage seven tackles L'Alpe d'Huez early on before the category 1 Col du Noyer and the short but steep kick up to the finish in Superdévoluy.

Sunday's final stage includes the Col de Vars and the 13.9km Montée de Risoul up to the finish. Both finishes seem ideal for Froome to extend his overall lead and land a psychological blow on his Tour de France rivals.

How it happened

After Wednesday's flat time trial the Critérium du Dauphiné peloton headed back into the mountains with the first true summit finish of this year’s race.

Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) led the peloton out of the sleepy village of Grésy-sur-Aix proudly wearing the race leader's yellow jersey but it wasn’t long before the bunch sprung to life. Several early attacks were launched as teams rolled the dice in an attempt to position a rider in the early break and a group of 15 quickly broke clear.

Team Sky, Tinkoff-Saxo, Katusha and Garmin-Sharp retained their full quota of riders in the peloton, as Bert Wellens (Lotto Belisol), Matteo Gavazzi (Astana), Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco), Matthew Busche (RadioShack Leopard), Daniel Teklehaimanot (Orica-GreenEdge), Pelo Bilbao (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Kevin Reza (Team Europcar), Frantisek Rabon (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Cayetano Sarmiento (Cannondale), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Bertjan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM), Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp-Endura), Brent Bookwalter (BMC), Thomas Damuseau (Argos-Shimano) and David de la Cruz (NetApp-Endura) formed the move.

A rider from nearly every team in the race meant that although there were some passengers the majority of riders were willing to work and over the Côte de Trévignin climb the break established a healthy lead.

Katusha and Garmin-Sharp were the first to react, when, with an advantage of 5:15, the peloton began to chase with 80km remaining. By the time the break had crested the Côte de la Croix, with Thomas Damuseau (Argos-Shimano) claiming more points to strengthen his lead in the KOM competition, the gap had fallen to just shy of three minutes. The overall contenders and their teams clearly wanted the stage victory.

The climb to the finish

Only Montée de Valmorel, surrounded by the snow-capped peaks of the Alps, awaited and the break plunged towards the base of the last climb. The peloton’s chase had reached an almost frantic pace, though, and with 19 kilometres, 12 of which were climbing, the break had lost another 30 seconds.

The climb to the finish was not especially steep or long -12.7km at 7% - but the breakaway began to melt like spring snow as the gradient and the fatigue of being out on the attack took their toll.

Bert Wellens, Busche and Teklehaimanot were the strongest as others dropped back, with Wellens hitting out alone in pursuit of stage victory. He started the climb with a lead close to two minutes but with Movistar and Team Sky setting a fierce tempo, his lead was cut in half with five kilometres to go.

Attacks by Valverde, first with Erviti and then alone, further upped the pace, with Pete Kennaugh and then Richie Porte working hard to keep him in check. The speed was too much for Dennis. He seemed stuck in a big gear and after a desperate fight, was finally gapped with 2.5km to go. He fought bravely to limit his losses but his moment in the spotlight as race leader was over.

Up front Busche caught and passed Wellens and seemed to have a chance of taking the stage victory. However Contador then blew the front group apart with an attack with little over a kilometre to go.

True to the Team Sky ethos, Froome let him go and then gradually reeled him in, sure in the knowledge of numbers and physiology that the Spaniard does not currently have the power to open significant gaps or sustain them.

Froome quickly crossed to Contador, as everybody else faded back, and the two then caught Busche in the final 500 metres. It looked like a three-up sprint would ensue but Froome was far stronger and accelerated to the line to win by four seconds and take control of the race lead, completing a perfect performance.

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