Critérium du Dauphiné: Dan Martin wins in Valmorel

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Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) won stage 5 of Critérium du Dauphiné at Valmorel, while Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) moved into the overall lead after placing second behind the Irishman atop the hors categorie climb to the finish.

Martin chose his moment sagely when he launched a forceful attack with a shade under three kilometres to go, shortly after Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) had splintered the front group with a probing move that only Thomas, Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Martin could immediately follow.

When the pace briefly abated, Martin punched his way clear and quickly established a lead over the remnants of the front group, where Team Sky's Tao Geoghegan Hart delivered another impressive cameo on this Dauphiné by taking control in support of Thomas. Their teammate and overnight leader Gianni Moscon, meanwhile, was among those irretrievably jettisoned off the back, with the Italian conceding over a minute by the summit.

"I knew that if I attacked, they might let me go because I was a little bit further back on general classification after the team time trial, so I took the opportunity," Martin said afterwards. "I saw everyone was in the red after Yates attacked and I thought I'd try. I was surprised how strong I was in the last three kilometres there."

Martin's 13-second lead as he approached the flamme rouge had all the appearances of a winning margin, but he had to withstand a late fightback from Thomas, who accelerated viciously once Geoghegan Hart had swung off.

Bardet was the only rider able to track Thomas' move, but his resistance was short-lived, as the Welshman pulled away from him in the big ring and proceeded to make dramatic inroads into Martin's lead as the road levelled out nearer the summit.

Despite almost pausing to celebrate a little too soon, Martin had enough in hand to win by 4 seconds from Thomas. Yates claimed third on the stage, 15 seconds back, just ahead of Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Dani Navarro (Cofidis) and Bardet.

Martin has endured a mixed debut campaign at UAE Team Emirates. After a subdued spring, he looked to have hit his stride at Liège-Bastogne-Liège only for a puncture to end his challenge at the foot of the Côte de Saint-Nicolas. The Dauphiné is his first race since placing 10th at the Tour de Romandie, and his second-place finish behind former teammate Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step) on Thursday was an indication of his form.

There are still two more mountain stages in which Martin can expect to move up from his current 14th position overall, but no matter how his Dauphiné finishes, Martin will approach the Tour de France – where he placed 6th last year – buoyed by his performances to this point.

"It's been a difficult season for me and the team. I've been feeling good all year, but it just hasn't worked out, so it's just fantastic to work out today," Martin said. "I'm really surprised. My training went perfectly the last few weeks, but I didn't plan on being in top, top condition here. My performance has been a bit of a surprise and I'm very happy. I'd prefer to be in this position then to be in difficulty and worrying about the Tour."

In the general classification, Thomas now holds a commanding lead of 1:09 over Damiano Caruso (BMC Racing Team), who placed 7th at 24 seconds on the stage. Moscon lies in third place overall, on the same time as Caruso.

Thomas' place atop the Team Sky hierarchy for the remainder of the Dauphiné is now clear, after Michal Kwiatkowski slipped to 5th overall at 1:15. Adam Yates remains a threat in 6th place at 1:18, while Bardet is now 1:53 off the pace in 7th overall.

How it unfolded

The brevity of the stage and the climb of the Côte de Naysord in the opening kilometres meant that warming up on the rollers was de rigueur for the Dauphiné peloton at the start in Grenoble. As soon as the flag was dropped, there was an immediate flurry of attacks, but unlike on Thursday, the early break managed to extricate itself from the bunch without undue difficulty.

Some 30 riders were initially in the move, but it was whittled down to nine men further up the Naysord, where king of the mountains leader Dario Cataldo (Astana) led over the top. Cataldo was joined in the break by Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Laurens de Plus (Quick-Step Floors), Edward Ravasi (UAE Team Emirates), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Matteo Fabbro (Katusha-Alpecin), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Carlos Verona (Mitchelton-Scott) and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal).

Come the second ascent of the Côte de Mouilles after 20 kilometres, the escapees had a lead of two minutes over the peloton, where Team Sky were dictating the tempo in defence of Gianni Moscon's overall lead. The effervescent Edet pipped Cataldo to maximum points atop the Mouilles, and the Italian opted shortly afterwards to sit up and wait for the main peloton.

Almost 100 kilometres of valley road followed, during which the break padded its lead out to a maximum of three minutes before Bora-Hansgrohe put their shoulders to the wheel and helped to peg them back. Bahrain-Merida's Heinrich Haussler was prominent in working to bring the gap down to within a minute on the final approach to the climb to Valmorel.

Once on the ascent, De Plus accelerated, bringing Edet and Ravasi with him, while Sky took up the reins again at the head of the peloton, with Classics specialist Dylan van Baarle riding on the lower slopes to whittle down the group of favourites.

Mitchelton-Scott took over midway up the 11km haul to the finish, with Robert Power and Damien Howsen clawing back Edet, the last survivor of the break. Marc Soler (Movistar) tested the waters with an attack 3.7 kilometres from home before the much-anticipated acceleration from Yates arrived shortly afterwards.

That attack helped to define the day's stage, with Moscon slipping backwards as the front group fragmented, ultimately losing 1:13 on the stage. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) came in 16th on the stage, 59 seconds down, roughly in line with his track record of maintaining a relatively low profile on the Dauphiné as he builds towards the Tour.

Up ahead, meanwhile, Martin's aggression was rewarded with his first win since the opening stage of last year's Volta ao Algarve, while Thomas put himself in a commanding position atop the overall standings, though there are two short and potentially explosive days in the high mountains still to come, starting with Saturday's leg to La Rosière, a dress rehearsal for stage 11 of the Tour de France.

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