Bonjour and welcome to another sunny day of racing in south-east France.
The riders are about to roll out for the hilly 175km stage from La Tour-de-Salvagny to Macon.
As usual we will have full coverage of all the action.
We will also have further information on the many transfer stories and reports that are emerging, including the report in today's Equipe that Chris Froome offered his services to BMC for the 2018 season.
The riders hsave rolled out from the start area and are currently in the neutralised sector.
There will be only 100 metres of flat terrain before they tackle the first climb of the day: the cat. 3 côte de Belmont-d'Azergues.
It is gonig to be an aggressive start to the stage.
Speaking just before the start, Chris Froome has dismissed reports that he has discussed signing for BMC as 'complete rubbish'.
Click here to read the full story.
There are six categorized climbs during today's stage, making for a tough day out before the three decisive mountain stages.
- Km 1.5: Côte de Belmont-d'Azergues (cat. 3, 1.4km at 8.6%) - Km 50: Côte de Régnié-Durette (cat. 4, 1.4km at 5.4%) - Km 64: Col du Fut d'Avenas (cat. 2, 8.8km at 5.1%) - Km 69.5: Côte d'Ouroux (cat. 4, 2.5km at 4.6%) - Km 80.5: Col de Champ Juin (cat. 4, 2.8km at 5.2%) - Km 142.5: Col du Bois Clair (cat. 4, 3.6km at 3.9%)
The riders face 7.5km of neutralised riding before the flag drops.
We are expected a series of sattacks on the first clmib as riders try to spark the break of the day. They know the overall contenders and their teams will be hoping for a quiet day in the peloton.
The flag drops and they're off!
The only non-starter today in Ian Stannard of Team Sky.
The Briton has been ill in recent days acording to Team Sky DS Nico Portal:
"Ian hasn't been feeling well for a few days and it didn't make sense for him to keep pushing himself," the team said via Twitter.
"He can go home now and get some rest and we'll get him checked properly to make sure he's OK. We'll look forward to seeing him back soon."
Surprisdingly or perhaps not, race leader Thomas De Gendt was one of the first to attack as he chases climber's points.
However the peloton is now all together.
However his effort paid off as De Gendt was first over the top of the côte de Belmont-d'Azergues.
He took 2 points, with nearest rival and stage 3 winner Koen Bouwman taking one point.
As this photo from Seb Piquet in the Radio Tour car behind the peloton, the sun is out for stage 5.
From the CN blimp we can see lots of attacks of thr front of the peloton but other tams are chasing the moves.
Simon Clarke of Cannondale inspired a six rider attack but they are quickly pulled back.
Lots of riders want to be in the action today, with the Delko team especially aggressive yet again.
Julien El Farès is theDelko rider on the attack. He has been joined by three others, including polka dot jersey wearer Koen Bouwman.
We can expect De Gendt and his Lotto Soudal team to perhaps chase him.
However the gap is up to 40 seconds.
The peloton appears to have eased and the gap is up to 1:40. We have a break of the day.
In the move are: Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac), Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Julien El Farès (Delko Marseille).
The gap is gup to 2:00 as the FDJ team lead the chase.
The French team clearly thinks that sprinter Arnaud Demare has another chance of victory today in Macon.
#dauphine A few attacks have been brought back and there are now 4 riders in the clear with a 1'20" advantage after 16km.
Today's 175km stage skirts the hills along the western side of the Rhone valley.
Near the small town of Belleville the route heads into the hills before a loop clockwise towards Macon.
With rolling roads through the vineyards, it is a typical transition stage that shoul offer some great racing as the brezk tries to stay away from the peloton and the sprinters.
#Dauphine The gap has increased to 3'40" after 35 km.
The breakaway riders are approaching the Cat 4 Cote du Régnié-Durette.
After some flat roads the race covers 4 categorised climbs in the next 30km.
As expected, Koen Bouwman scored the one KOM point at the top of the Cote du Régnié-Durette.
He is slowly closing the gap on De Gendt. Indeed with the three points scored so far, he is new equal with the Belgian on 17 points.
Katusha are moving up towards the front of the bunch. This is potentially their last clear chance at a stage win today and they don't want the breakaway to outsmart them today.
The leaders are onto the third climb of the day the Col du Fut d'Avenas. It's an 8.8km ascent with an average gradient of 5 per cent. There are five points on offer at the top with points available for the first four over the top. By virtue of being in this four-man break Bouwman will move into the lead of the mountains classification on this climb.
Including this coming climb, there are a total of eight points still up for grabs on this stage. There are 18 on offer tomorrow so Bouwman may have to go on the attack early tomorrow to protect his lead.
Dan Martin has dropped back to the medical car. It's just an insect bite for the Quick-Step rider so he'll be fine to carry on.
The gap edges out just a little for the leaders, who are now ahead of the peloton by 5:15. The peloton appears more than happy with this advantage while up front Bouwman takes the points to move into the virtual lead of the mountains competition.
De Gendt is unlikely to worry too much about his position in the mountains classification today as he's got the yellow jersey to try and keep a hold of. De Gendt has a solid lead but his chances of taking it all the way to the finish are slim.
Sunweb's Sam Oomen is currently sitting ninth overall and wearing the white jersey of the young rider's classification. Cyclingnews caught up with the 21-year-old yesterday after a solid ride in the time trial. Read what he had to say here.
The leaders have gone over the top of the Côte d'Ouroux and Bouwman has collected another point for his collection. The lead remains stable for now.
If you haven't done it yet, have a listen of our latest podcast following the time trial yesterday. In it, we hear from stage winner Richie Porte, Chris Froome and more. You can find the podcast here.
The riders have been out there for two hours now and the average speed after that time is 39kph.
Another point for Bouwman. He's got one more left to collect at the Col du Bois Clair. It comes just over 30km to the finish, but the peloton should let the break stay out until then.
The peloton has passed through La Clayette where Edvald Boasson Hagen won a stage of the 2012 Criterium du Dauphine. Can he take a victory today?
The gap to the escapees has dropped down to five minutes with just under 90km of today's stage remaining.
The lead of the break stays at 5:00 after the hills in the middle of the stage.
The real pursuit match is about to begin.
It will be fascinating to see who picks up the chase in the finale.
De Gendt and Lotto Soudal will not waste any energy, forcing the sprinters' teams to do the work.
The Bahrain-Merida are hoping that Sonny Colbrelli can get a result and so will be oblgied to help the chase.
Demare is wearing the green points jersey and so will also chase.
Jérémy Maison did a lot of the early work for FDJ more power wil lbe needed in the final 50km.
70km remaining from 175km
We can see som reaction from the peloton as the gap falls to 4:30.
#Dauphine The gap has decreased to 4'30". There's still 68 km to go, but it looks like this stage is going to end in a sprint finish.
Sadly El Fares threw hus enpty can into the grass rather than into his team car.
He could be fined for bad behaviour after the stage finish.
35km remaining from 175km
The riders are on the last clmib of the day: the Col du Bois Clair.
Behind the peloton has eased slightly to ensure the sprinters and their domestiques stay together.
That will give the breakaway a chance to go for it. However the peloton will be careful not to mess up again as they did on stage 1 and 3.
As expected Bouwman is first to the summit of the last climb, taking another point. He has 24 points now and so takes the leader from De Gendt and will wear the red polka-dot jersey by right today on the pdoium and then during Friday's first big mountain stage.
As the peloton crests the climb some riders take bidons from their teams to esnure they are hydrated in the final 30km.
The French countryside is stunning today, with rolling fields of vines and sunflowers. Both are still green and growing.
The sunflowers will no odubt be out in July during the Tour de France.
Bouwman has paid for his efforts in the last few days. He's been dropped from the break. Fortunately he knows he has the climber's jersey.
We studied the bikes and equipment used during Tuesday's key time trial.
Bahrain and Katusha lead but FDJ is trying to move up.
Lead out man Guarnieri is trying to drag Demare up to the front.
Bouhanni is also trying to move up.
Last KM!
Katusha is in control.
Kristoff goes early but it was too early!
Demare came past him but so did the others.
Phil Bauhaus of Sunweb gets it!
He followed the Direct Enerige lead out for Coquard but had the speed to hit out and win.
Bauhaus is still only 22 but has shown his speed several times this season.
He beat Demare and Coquard today.
All the sprinters were beaten today. Petit was fourth after trying to lead out Coquard or ride his own sprint.
Bouhanni and Kristoff were only fifth and sixth.
Bauhuas rode the Giro d'Italia alongside Tom Dumoulin but was pulled from the race by the team on stage 17 after showing signs of fatigue.
He had shown signs of his speed by finishing ffith in Messina and fourth in Reggio Calabria.
He won a stage at the 2016 Tour of Denmark but is by far his biggest victory of his young career.
Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) finished safely in the peloton and so retained the leader’s yellow jersey for another day.
He will try to defend it during Friday’s first mountain stage over the terrible Mont du Chat climb to La Motte-Servolex but lead time trial winner Richie Porte (BMC) by just 27 seconds.
#Dauphine Le classement général du @dauphine reste inchangé après cette 5ème étape. https://t.co/CQkDWEcXBp
Bauhaus also showed his speed in last year's U23 world championships in Qatar, finishing fourth in the sprint.
He is a name to remember.
“It feels really good (to have won). I felt that may shape was quite good a few weeks ago and I’m super happy that now everything worked out and that I could take the first victory,” Bauhaus said.
"I saw on the second stage that my sprint was quite good and I felt from the beginning that my legs were good today. We chased with two guys and so I was confident. My legs were good enough to take the win home."
"A win for a sprinter is always good. I felt I was quite close in Arlanc the other day and so I got support from the team. For sure this is the biggest win of my career so far."
#dauphine @bryancoquard 3e et @PetitAdrien62 4e. https://t.co/ib9qkNB48K
1 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb 04:04:32 2 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ 3 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Direct Energie 4 Adrien Petit (Fra) Direct Energie 5 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 6 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha-Alpecin 7 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 8 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data 9 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 10 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale
This is the General Classification after stage 5.
1 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 17:10:25 2 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 00:00:27 3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 00:00:51 4 Stef Clement (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 00:00:55 5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 00:01:02 6 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 00:01:04 7 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 00:01:12 8 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team 00:01:15 9 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb 00:01:17 10 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Team UAE Emirates 00:01:22
This is the first image of Bauhaus's winning sprint today. He seems pretty happy.
De Gendt has pulled on another yellow jersey and has been asked to autograph a number of other yellow jerseys.
This is another shot of Bauhaus' win today.
This is a photo on Bauhaus on the podium.
Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo) took the red polka-dot jersey today after his third day out front in the break to score mountain points.
This is a shot of the remains of the break as Van Baarle and Minnaard fought to stay away.
For our full report, results and photo gallery, click here to go to our race report page.
This is a great shot of the race in the Rhone vineyards and reflects the difficulties of the stage.
This shot shows the intensity of the finale as the peloton rode to the finish and Pete Kennaugh worked to protect Team Sky leader Chris Froome.
#Dauphine As well as @PhilBauhaus's stage win, @SamOomen also conserves his white jersey as best young rider after… https://t.co/SisBkIOknr
Thank you for joining us for our full report from stage 5 from the Criterium du Dauphine.
We'll be back tomorrow for full live coverage of stage 6 - the first of three mountain stages in this year's race that will decide the overall classification.
The 147.5km stage includes the tough Mont du Chat climb just 15km from the finish. The stage includes 2540m of climbing. The Mont du Chat is 8.7Km at 10.3% gradient.
It will surely shake up the race and show the riders' true form.
Becky Storrie will kick off the women's time trial at 10:39 CET, Marco Brenner is the first rider off the starting ramp in the men's time trial at 14:57 CET
