Critérium du Dauphiné: Costa wins stage 6

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Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) won a pulsating and rain-soaked stage 6 of the Critérium du Dauphiné as Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) moved into the leader’s yellow jersey.

After an attritional day of racing on the on 183km route from Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur to Villard-de-Lans route, the former world road race champion responded to a late attack by Nibali, with whom he had been in a long break, catching and passing him 300 metres from the line.

Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), also part of that main move of the day, came home 38 seconds later, with the Spaniard going third on general classification, half a minute behind Nibali and one second behind Costa.

Tejay van Garderen (BMC) relinquished his race lead, coming home over two minutes behind Nibali with Chris Froome (Team Sky) as the remnants of the shattered bunch crossed the line in twos and threes. 

Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale), who won the previous day in Pra Loup and was second on GC ahead of stage 6, crashed on a wet corner inside the final 5km and dropped out of the top 10. Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), 22, who attacked the reduced peloton with 15km to go, put in a brilliant ride to finish fifth and move up to fourth on general classification. He also moved into the white jersey of best young rider ahead of Bardet.

With six categorised climbs in store, the race was on from the start and after an early flurry of attacks, Nibali made his move as far out as 115km from the line. Gallopin, Valverde, Costa, and Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) joined him as the peloton struggled to mount a concerted chase behind.

Whereas yesterday the Italian lost time having refused to go too deep on the summit finish at Pra Loup, today his appetite for racing could not be sated. He forced the pace throughout and it was no surprise to see him spring from behind Costa and Valverde with 1.5km to go.

Costa, who had taken the shortest turns possible in the break, then set about reeling him back in. As he crossed the line with the stage win, he pointed to the rainbow bands on the sleeve of his jersey, the events reminiscent of that rainy day in Florence in 2013.

How it unfolded

The moves started to go from the start and nine riders, including Julian Alaphilippe and Tim Wellens formed a short-lived break. Daniel Teklehaimanot was distanced on the first climb after three days on the attack and on the descent the action really began to kick off.

The next group to go was made up of 19 riders and included Nibali, van Garderen and Bardet but that too came to nothing. Tony Martin then made one stick for a bit longer and soon had 30 seconds, but he too was reeled back in.

Shortly after Martin was caught, Nibali, who lost time yesterday, made his move. The Italian gained 20 seconds on the Col de Grimone, the fourth climb of the day, and extended that on the descent. He then gained company as Gallopin, Valverde, Rui Costa, and Martin all bridged over.

The frantic racing caused the bunch to be cut down to an elite few, including Froome, Andrew Talansky, Dan Martin (both Cannondale-Garmin), van Garderen and Bardet. After three hours of racing the riders averaged 41.8kph, ahead of the fastest predicted time schedule, and the attritional racing saw Alaphilippe and Maxime Bouet (Etixx-QuickStep), along with Alex Dowsett (Movistar) and others, abandon the race.

The leaders stretched their advantage to over three minutes by the time they were on the cat-one Col de Rousset, and as they neared the summit Nibali went clear before being pegged back on the descent. The gap stayed above three minutes for some time as AG2R-La Mondiale, and BMC pulled on the front of the bunch and the rain continued to hammer down.

With 20km to go Martin was dropped and the pace picked up in the peloton, most of the GC men becoming shorn of domestiques. Simon Yates went off up the road and the now-small bunch behind struggled to coordinate a chase, blowing itself to pieces as frantic moves were made and followed.

Dan Martin also made a move and gained some time, while Movistar had plenty of cards to play. With 4.4km to go Bardet, who had descended so beautifully on stage 5, misjudged a corner and slipped out on the waterlogged surface.

Gallopin attacked from the break just inside 4km on the final cat-three climb of the day, and immediately opened up an advantage. Nibali waited behind and sat on Costa’s wheel before jumping him from the left. He instantly dropped the Portugeuse and Valverde and was soon past Gallopin.

However, Costa looked fresh as he clawed his way back to Nibali, who was increasingly fighting with the bike, and dropped him with ease on the home straight.

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