Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of the Dauphiné. It’s stage 5 today, and the first summit finish of the race. The GC men have been able to keep their powder relatively dry since the opening prologue – though their were late splits yesterday – but today signals the start of the true fight for the yellow jersey.
So, the riders have gathered in La Ravoire, where we have another beautiful day. They've signed on and will shortly be rolling out for the neutralised section. Racing proper is expected to begin at around 13:30 local time.
Shorts and t-shirt weather for our own Daniel Benson, who has just grabbed a word with Chris Froome.
Here's what today's stage looks like:
As you can see, it's a far from gentle start to the day, with no fewer than six categorised climbs in the first 80km. Things calm down somewhat thereafter, but the road rises sharply again at the end of the stage with the final climb to Vaujany, with ramps of well over 10%.
A short stage with plenty of climbing and a summit finish - it could be explosive and we're sure to see some GC action.
The riders roll out of La Ravoire
Here's how the GC stands after four stages
1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff Team 17:52:45 2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:04 3 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:06 4 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:00:09 5 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:00:12 6 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:27 7 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-GreenEdge 0:00:31 8 Diego Rosa (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:35 9 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:43 10 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:48
The flag drops and racing is underway. With plenty of early climbs there should be a fair bit of interest in getting into the break.
A couple of DNS's to tell you about.
Alexis Gougeard (AG2R) is suffering from contusions after being brought down in a late crash yesterday, while Chad Haga (Giant-Alpecin) has withdrawn through fatigue. Cofidis' Christophe Laporte and Trek-Segafredo's Niccolo Bonifazio are also non-starters, giving us 167 riders in today's peloton.
It's a fast and furious start to the day as the peloton is strung out into a long line. Tinkoff and those wanting to control things will have to be vigilant about who's allowed to go up the road.
"It's a short stage and that's going to make it hard to control," says BMC's Richie Porte, 3rd overall.
"With six classified climbs at the start, there are going to be fireworks and it's going to be hard for Tinkoff to keep defending when there are so many guys there on GC.
John Degenkolb goes on the attack, curiously, and is joined by Greg Van Avermaet and Tony Martin. The powers that be in the peloton, however, are having none of it and it's all back together.
Movistar's Rubén Fernández, who won the Tour de l'Avenir in 2013, has had to abandon the race following a crash in the neutral zone.
We're well onto this short third-category climb now and some riders are getting dropped, including Michal Kwiatkowski, who is struggling here with illness.
Kwiatkowski's teammate Woet Poels attacks and drags some riders with him - Ben Hermans (BMC), Perrig Quémeneur (Direct Energie), Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida) and Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R-La Mondiale).
Grmay grabs the two KOM points at the top, with Hermans bagging one, but Tinkoff have brought things back together.
A short descent now before the riders hit the second climb of the day - the fourth-category Côte d'Arvillard. It's 2.2km long at 5.3%.
Bataille pour prendre l'échappée, peloton groupé / Big fight for the breakaway, no one managed to take time yet https://t.co/w309rKOziY
Voeckler gets a gap with Vuillermoz and Grmay tries to bridge but, once again, they are brought back.
A couple of short climbs out of the way, but now onto the serious stuff.
The riders are rapidly approaching the first-category Col du Barioz.
We’ll see how things unfold on the road today," Chris Froome told us this morning. "We’ve a great team here and we’ll use that to our advantage. The [final] climb is very steep so we’ll see how selective is it.
"So far Alberto and Richie stand out the most. The harder the race is the more truth that will come out and we’ll see where everyone is at. It’s not up to us to be on the front, as we don’t have the jersey. We’ll sit back and read the race."
Voeckler, Grmay, and Vuillermoz did in fact manage to hold off the peloton and they're still maintaining a slim lead at the head of the race. A large chase group has gathered behind them.
Onto the Col du Barioz now as Tinkoff keep maintain the pressure on the front of the bunch.
It's getting scrappy as the gradients ramp up, and some of the chasers are managing to make it to the head of the race. The peloton is about 30 seconds back at the moment.
103km remaining from 140km
Clément Chevrier (IAM Cycling) has joined the three leaders to make a group of four at the head of the race.
We're onto the upper slopes of this climb and the peloton have knocked it back a little - they're now over a minute behind.
A couple more riders have joined the lead group while the chasing pack has ballooned and is closing in.
The big chase group has joined up with the leaders so we now have a huge group of around 25 leading the race. We'll bring you the make-up of the group shortly, but the peloton are coming back...
The lead group:
Woet Poels (Sky), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Robert Kiserlovski, Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff), Steve Morabito, Sebastien Reichenbach (FDJ), Andriy Grivko, Paolo Tiralongo (Astana), Jan Bakelants, Cyril Gautier, Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R), Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEdge), Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto Soudal), Evald Boasson Hagen, Steve Cummings, Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), Ryder Hesjedal (Trek-Segafredo), Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie), Tom Jelte Slagter (Cannondale), Jerome Coppel (IAM), Bjorn Thurau (Wanty), Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), Tsgabu Grmay and Luka Pibernik (Lampre-Merida)
Here's the results at the top of the Col du Barioz
1. Teklehaimanot, 10 pts
2. Grmay, 8 pts
3. Voeckler, 6 pts
4. Poels, 4 pts
5. Bakelants, 2 pts
6. Reichenbach, 1 pt
Contador has placed two men in the break in Kreuziger and Kiserlovski. It's Contador's other teammates who lead the peloton, around 1:15 behind.
94km remaining from 140km
The riders are coming to the end of a fast descent, but the road is about to pitch up once more.
Next up is the second-category Col des Ayes - 3.8km at 8.1%
The peloton, still led by Tinkoff, begin to eat into the breakaway's advantage.
45 seconds is the gap now. This climb isn't long but it's pretty steep.
Teklehaimanot once again skips away to take maximum points at the top of the climb. He could be riding his way into the polka dot jersey.
#Dauphine @krisboeckmans had to abandon the race due to an allergic reaction to a wasp sting underneath his eye.
Confirmed: Teklehaimanot will be the new wearer of the polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification at the end of the day.
84km remaining from 140km
We're currently dealing with another climb. This one's fairly insignificant - the Col des Mouilles, 2.1km long with an average gradient of just over 6%.
Poels upsets the party and grabs the solitary point at the top of the climb.
The breakaway is now beginning to break up.
We're heading gently downhill now and the peloton, currently led by Astana, is over a minute behind.
It's worth remembering that Ryder Hesjedal is only 49 seconds down on GC, so at the moment he's the virtual leader of the race.
78km remaining from 140km
Andriy Grivko has attacked the breakaway and has opened up a sizeable advantage.
Away from the racing itself, there was an announcement this morning that Orica will be ending their sponsorship of the Orica-GreenEdge team at the end of 2017.
The peloton has really put its foot on the gas in the rolling section between these two climbs. They're closing in on the big group now.
Regroupement
The 24 chasers have been caught. So we now have a lone leader in Grivko.
65km remaining from 140km
Grivko has 1:05 over the peloton now as we enter the second half of the race.
We're now moving onto our next climb - the Côte de la Sarrazine.
It's 3.3km long at 5%
Some counter attacks have been going off the front of the bunch but nothing has been allowed to stick as the road heads uphill.
After his efforts to secure the polka dot jersey, Teklehaimanot has dropped off the back of this chasing group and is being reeled in by the peloton.
58km remaining from 140km
With just under 60km to go, Grivko has almost two minutes on the bunch.
News coming in that Kris Boeckmans has abandoned the race. Boeckmans endured a tough winter following a horrible crash at last year's Vuelta a Espana but made his comeback to racing at the Handzame classic in March.
Grivko has been caught by a group of four chasers, who are Cyril Gautier (AG2R-La Mondiale), Dayer Quintana (Movistar), Enrico Gasparotto (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Bartosz Huzarski (Bora Argon 18). The peloton is 2:40 behind now.
The riders have got a long descent now before the road levels out for the briefest of moments and then they'll be climbing again towards the final, crucial ascent.
Tinkoff are doing the pace setting on the front of the bunch, they'll want to make sure that Contador doesn't get caught behind anything today.
News from the finish is that it's dry with a few clouds in the sky. There is a small tailwind too, which will be music to some.
Tinkoff has pulled the gap back a little to 2:25 as they reach the bottom of the descent but they're happy to have these guys out front for now.
With the gaps as they are for now, Dayer Quintana is the virtual leader. The younger brother of Nairo, he began the day just 1:39 behind Contador. Quintana won the Tour de San Luis earlier this season.
38km remaining from 140km
The peloton is moving in to team order on this flatter stretch of road. The pace has definitely gone up and the bunch is stringing out.
34km remaining from 140km
Contador is the penultimate rider in the Tinkoff train. He's got one rear gunner protecting him from those behind.
Teklehaimanot is sitting at the back of the bunch with Stephen Cummings for company. He'll just want to make it home safely with the polka dot jersey already his.
30km remaining from 140km
30km to go now and here's a reminder of the stage profile. We're on the gentle uphill section.
The gap currently stands at 2:10 as the peloton strings out due to the work of Tinkoff.
Tinkoff, Sky, Astana, BMC - most with a full complement of riders. That's the order in the peloton, which is largely a single file line.
25km remaining from 140km
25km to go now and the breakaway's advantage has been cut down to 1:45.
That's set to fall further as we continue the approach to the final climb.
After yesterday's stage we spoke to Tinkoff owner Oleg Tinkov. As ever, the Russian had some interesting opinions...
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 03:32:20 2 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 00:00:01 3 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-GreenEdge 00:00:19 4 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step 5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff Team 00:00:21 6 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 00:00:25 7 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Cannondale Pro Cycling 00:00:27 8 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 9 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre - Merida 10 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step
General Classification after stage 5
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 21:24:59 2 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 00:00:07 3 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff Team 00:00:27 4 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step 00:00:37 5 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step 00:00:42 6 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-GreenEdge 00:00:52 7 Diego Rosa (Ita) Astana Pro Team 00:01:08 8 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 00:01:16 9 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 00:01:21 10 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre - Merida 00:01:27
Not a huge amount of change in the top 10 as Jesus Herrada drops out and Louis Meintjes moves up. Impressive stuff from Adam Yates, third on the stage, who strengthens his position.
Froome steps onto the podium to pull on that familiar yellow jersey
What a win from Froome - and what a statement of intent. Dropping Contador there will represent a significant psychological blow ahead of the Tour de France.
And Froome had looked to be in trouble... Was he bluffing? We've seen him drag himself back plenty of times before but I don't think any of the others were expecting that searing attack. The two-time Tour winner's form is becoming more and more clear.
Another dose of deja vu now as Daniel Teklehaimanot steps onto the podium to collect the polka dot jersey that he won outright last year.
Here are the new KOM standings
1. Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data) - 22 points 2. Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida) - 13 points 3. Chris Froome (Team Sky) - 11 points 4. RIchie Porte (BMC) - 11 points 5. Alberto Contador (TInkoff) - 10 points
Our brief stage report and results can be found here
"To be honest it was better than expected. It was a hard day and fast and today showed I’m in good place. That I could go with Froome like that is a good sign for me."
"I’m happy with how the day went, the team were great. Good signs."
Froome on the offensive
So, our focus turns to tomorrow's stage 6. It's the penultimate stage of the race and probably the most decisive.
An early steep first-category climb, followed by the fearsome Col de la Madeleine, and finally a first-category summit finish at the ski resort of Méribel - all packed into 140km.
There are sure to be fireworks.
Here's what Porte had to say about it:
“Tomorrow is the queen stage so the goal is to recover as much as possible. Tomorrow we’ll see what everyone wants to do. Tinkoff controlled that well today but I think Sky has the team to attack like that and it’s set Froome up really well and I benefited from that too.”
"The pendulum at the Critérium du Dauphiné swung towards Chris Froome on the first of its three decisive legs in the high mountains as the Sky rider claimed stage victory at Vaujany to divest Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) of the yellow jersey of race leader."
And with that we'll leave you for today. We'll be back again tomorrow for full live coverage of the queen stage of the Dauphiné - certainly not one to be missed. Thanks for joining us today and we hope to see you again tomorrow.
