Criterium du Dauphine: Bilbao wins in La Rosiere

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Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) gained a few seconds on his overall rivals at the Critérium du Dauphiné mountain finish to La Rosière to extended his overall lead to 1:29 on Adam Yates and 2:01 on Romain Bardet, with just one mountain stage remaining.

Pello Bilbao (Astana) won the intense 110km stage across four major cols after being in the break of the day. The Spanish climber has been racing hard since the Tour of the Alps and finished sixth overall at the Giro d'Italia but found the mental and physical energy to holds off the chasers and take a deserved win before an equally well-deserved break from racing.

Thomas finished 21 seconds down on Bilbao after making a violent attack inside the final kilometre that cracked Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates), Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale). He gained just a handful of seconds at the line but landed a moral-boosting blow after coming under attack in the heart of the stage from Bardet and his AG2R La Mondiale squad.

Thomas now leads Yates by 1:29, with Bardet in third at 2:01. Sunday's 136km stage from Moûtiers to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc will be the final test of his leadership.

"It wasn't ideal but AG2R rode really well today. They really took the race on and put us under pressure but fortunately we've got such a strong team, when one guy is not so good, another guy steps up. Tao and Castro were really good today. We were always just in control. We never panicked," Thomas explained.

"I didn't want to get carried away. It's easy to underestimate how far to go. I didn't want to lose time. It's obviously a big day as well tomorrow. I try to do just the minimum and at the end, I went for it to see what happens. I managed to get a few more bonus second, which is good."

Bilbao was perhaps happier after his near two months of constant racing and suffering.

"Yesterday, I had a bad day, I paid for my efforts from the Giro. I was completely done, I had no energy left. But today I felt good legs. I wanted to try something for the team who believed in me for overall," Bilbao explained.

"The rhythm of the breakaway was much better for me. Then it went perfect in the last climb. I had a small gap but I had to stay ahead before the last 5km, I knew it would be easier after that point.

"I managed to do it. It's unbelievable for me. It's difficult to maintain a good condition after the Giro, especially after this very hard Giro but I still had the motivation and support to go for a stage win."

110km of intense racing

The 110km stage saw almost every ride on the rollers to warm-up for the uphill start and expected early attacks. It was a wise decision.

Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic) initiated the first serious break. First, seven riders reacted and eventually a group of 27 formed after 20km of racing on the slopes of the hors categorie, eight per cent Montée de Bisanne.

In the move were Bilbao, Dario Cataldo, Bakthyar Kozhatayev and Hugo Houle (Astana), Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates), Axel Domont and Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Brent Bookwalter (BMC), Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), Hector Carretero (Movistar), Pieter Serry (Quick Step), Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Ian Boswell and Pavel Kotchekov (Katusha-Alpecin), Robert Power and Carlos Verona (Mitchelton-Scott), Barguil, Romain Hardy and Amaël Moinard (Fortuneo-Samsic), Lawson Craddock (EF), Thomas Degand (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), Neilson Powless (LottoNL-Jumbo), Tsgabu Grmay (Trek-Segafredo) and Arnaud Courteille (Vital Concept).

Astana were riding for Cataldo's mountain’s jersey and the Italian was first to the summit, as Team Sky rode a fast but steady tempo behind to keep the gap close to three minutes.

The series of climbs meant the stage went either up or down, with the Col du Pre’ starting after 45km. With the Cormet de Roselend coming straight after, it meant 38km of almost continuous climbing in the heart of the stage.

AG2R La Mondiale tried their move on the Cormet de Roselend, setting a fast pace that caused Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Michal Kwiatkowski and Gianni Moscon (Team Sky) to be dropped. Bardet eventually attacked on the descent, opening a 20-second gap. But he was solo and was caught with 20km to race after Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) showed off his descending skills and dragged the others across to the Frenchman.

Up front the riders in the breakaway were thinking about the stage victory. Some were dropped before the final climb and others were distanced as soon as the 17.6km Rosière began.

Latour attacked with 10km to go but the USA’s Ian Boswell counter-attacked and pushed on alone. Bilbao passed them one by one to take the lead with seven kilometres to go. He had to dig deep on the 9 per cent middle section of the climb but knew the road eased in the final kilometres.

Behind the GC contenders emerged as Jonathan Castroviejo and then Tao Geoghegan Hart gave their all for Thomas, setting a painful pace. Martin attacked on the steep section but Thomas, Bardet and eventually Yates and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) joined them as the climb exposed who was really the strongest in a natural shakeout.

Bilbao managed to hold onto a 20-second gap, rightly celebrating at the line, while Thomas and Team Sky showed they were in charge of the overall classification.

This year's Dauphine was arguably shaped massively by the opening prologue time trial and then the team time trial. Thomas crashed hard in the prologue losing any advantage but Team Sky set up their and his success with a dominant ride on Wednesday to set up overall victory on Sunday. 

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