Bonjour and welcome to our full live coverage of stage 5 of the Criterium du Dauphine.
After yesterday's TT, today's stage is expected to be a day for the sprinters after a rolling 201km of racing.
The race has been hit by the news of Chris Froome's high-speed crash during his recon of the TT but the racing goes on, with Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) now in the leader's jersey.
The riders have been signing on in Boën-sur-Lignon under sunny skies and will soon roll out.
On Thursday morning a Team Ineos spokesperson confirmed to Cyclingnews that Froome was still in intensive care.
The four-time Tour de France winner crashed at high-speed on Wednesday fracturing his right elbow, and right femur as well as several ribs.
This was the scene at the Team Ineos bus at the start.
Dave Brailsford gave an update on Froome's conditions this morning at the start. We'll have the full story on Cyclingnews very soon.
The riders have lined-up and rolled out of Boën-sur-Lignon.
#Dauphiné
Adam Yates wears the yellow Dauphine leader's jersey for the first time in his career.
He’s got an advantage of 4’ seconds on former leader Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) and six seconds over Tejay van Garderen (EF Education First).
141 riders started today's stage 5. Jacques Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data) was the only DNS due to illness.
After some wet and cold early stages, the French summer and blue skies have arrived. This is the view from the race director's car thanks to the voice of race radio Seb Piquet.
The riders were happy to be racing in the sun.
As the CN blimp takes height, we can see the first breakaway attempt.
Yoann Bagot (Vital Concept) attacked virtually from the start.
198km remaining from 201km
Bagot has been joined by Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), while Alessandro De Marchi (CCC) is also trying to jump across.
The peloton has let the trio go clear. We have the early break of the day.
Yoann Bagot (Vital Concept) has been joined by Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis) and Alessandro De Marchi (CCC), with the peloton already at 3:00.
Mitchelton-Scott are letting the sprinters lead the chase, with Bora-Hansgrohe happy to do the work, knowing Sam Bennett has a great chance of another sprint victory at the finish.
Giro d'Italia stage winner Cesare Benedetti is doing the early work for Bora on the front.
While we are following the racing in France, we're also covering Chris Froome's bad crash. The Team Inoes leader is still in intensive care in Saint-Étienne after undergoing overnight surgery on his serious fractures to his right femur, right elbow and ribs.
Froome's wife Michelle has issued some updates via Froome's twitter account.
This was our initial story yesterday when it emerged that Froome had crashed hard during his TT recon ride. Froome was treated in an ambulance and then flown to Saint-Étienne for surgery.
Going back to the racing, we can see the three attackers make through a rail level crossing just before the barriers come down.
170km remaining from 201km
The peloton is 3:00 and may lose more time due to the level crossing.
Fortunately not, the crossing opens as the peloton approaches and the riders make it across without stopping.
Froome's rivals and friends in the peloton where shocked to hear about his crash.
Tom Dumoulin is recovering from a nasty cut to his knee that forced him to quit the Giro d'Italia and so understands the personal and professional implications of a serious crash.
"That’s devastating for him and for cycling in general," Dumoulin told Cyclingnews after Van Aert had nudged him off the hot seat with an amazingly fast ride.
Richie Porte and Chris Froome have been teammates and rivals but when news filtered through that Froome had crashed out of the Criterium du Dauphine, the Trek-Segafredo rider spoke for everyone in the peloton when he wished the Team Ineos leader a speedy recovery.
"It's not nice. Whether he's a rival or not, and no matter what people think of Chris Froome, he's still got two young kids and a wife at home. There's a very human element to that. No one likes seeing anyone getting hurt, so I hope it's not too bad. It doesn't sound good though," Porte told Cyclingnews after riding his TT.
To hear the emotion and sadness in the voices of Brailsford, Poels, Dumoulin and Porte on Froome's crash, listen to our special podcast with Editor-in-chief Daniel Benson and former rider Philippa York, who are out in France for Cyclingnews.
Returning to today's racing, the break of three continues to lead by 3:00.
Stéphane Rossetto took the only point atop the côte de St-Galmier climb.
142km remaining from 201km
Bagot, De Marchi and Rossetto covered 38.8km in the first hour of racing as the tackle the early cat 4 climbs of the stage and try to get away from the peloton.
De Marchi took the single KOM point atop the côte de St-Symphorien-sur-Coise after 48km.
The trio face 142km of flatter roads now.
The peloton is being led by Mitchelton-Scott, with Bora also helping with the pace setting.
However Alessandro De Marchi and the other break aways are no real threat yo Yates' yellow jersey.
The Italian is the highest ranked of the breakaway riders with a gap of 15:43 in GC.
We have the latest update on Chris Froome's condition from Ineos team manager Dave Brailsford.
Froome underwent almost eight hours of surgery overnight to repair fractures in his femur, hip and elbow following his crash at the Critérium du Dauphiné on Wednesday. He remains in intensive care in hospital in Saint-Étienne.
"The feedback we’ve been getting is that the work that’s been done is very, very good and he’s being looked after in an exemplary fashion. He’s onto this next phase of being in intensive care,” Brailsford said at the start of stage 5.
Bagot, De Marchi and Rossetto have 2:55 over the peloton as they head towards Givors. The catetory 4 Cote de Givors (2.9km at 4.8%) will be the third climb of the day.
119km remaining from 201km
The leading trio pause for a natural break and their advantage over the peloton drops slightly as a result. They now have 2:15 on the bunch.
The gap falls a little further, to 1:45, as the escapees begin the Cote de Givors. After two hours of racing, the average speed is 39.6kph.
De Marchi leads the break over the Cote de Givors. The escapees have extended their lead once again to 2:35 over the peloton.
Philippa York has weighed up the impact Chris Froome's absence will have on Team Ineos in July and on the Tour de France as a whole. "In May it was Egan Bernal and the Giro d’Italia, and now with the Tour de France on the horizon, Team Ineos find themselves in the same recurring bad dream, with Chris Froome out injured and the team’s Tour de France plans up in smoke. The quest to join the five-time winners is over – for now at least – and Dave Brailsford and his team have a number of difficult decisions to make." Read the full story here.
98km remaining from 201km
Into the final 100km for the three leaders, who have a little over two minutes in hand on the bunch.
Escapee Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) is hoping to ride his way into contention for a Tour de France debut at the age of 32. The Frenchman missed much of the spring after fracturing his hip in a training crash before Paris-Nice but he returned to action at the Tour de Yorkshire in May.
87km remaining from 201km
The break is on the Cote de Vienne (2.1km at 4%), still with an advantage of 2:35 over the peloton.
82km remaining from 201km
There was a drop in speed during the third hour of racing, and the average speed is down to 37.4kph per letour.fr.
81km remaining from 201km
Yoann Bagot (Vital Concept), Alessandro De Marchi (CCC) and Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) have 2:25 in hand on the peloton.
74km remaining from 201km
As the kilometres tick down, the chances of the sprinters increase, knowing their teammates should be able to reel in the break in the finale.
Sam Bennett of Bora is the favourite again after showing his rivals a clean pari of heels on stage 2.
Bennett spoke about the expected sprint at the start. He has done his homework.
“Maybe it’ll be a little bit easier to control the front of the race with the corners in the finale. I’ll need to be in the right position beforehand but my guys are up for it again today," Bennett said via the race website.
"With 2km to go, that’s where we’ll have to hit the front and hold the position. If you’re too far back at that point, it’ll be over. It’s a tricky one. Maybe Quick Step and Greipel’s team will contribute [to getting a bunch sprint finish] but we won’t get much help."
68km remaining from 201km
The break and peloton are playing cat and mouse but the cat (the peloton) is very much on control today.
Deceuninck-QuickStep is now leading the chase, bringing down the gap to 2:30.
Cavanga is there for the Belgian team, with Impey chasing for race leader Adam Yates, while Benedetti is working for Bora and Sam Bennett.
66km remaining from 201km
The gap has fallen to 1:40 as the Alps can be seen on the horizon.
The Dauphine begins to climb into the high mountains on Friday with stage 6 to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne.
57km remaining from 201km
After four cat 45 climbs, the terrain is flatter and more exposed but the three attackers are going for it, perhaps hoping to surprise the peloton.
51km remaining from 201km
As we near the 50km to go mark, the race is on, with EF and Jumbo-Visma also riding at the front now.
50km remaining from 201km
Rossetto wins the intermediate sprint but there was no sprint, the trio is focused on working together.
46km remaining from 201km
Julian Alaphilippe is riding at the back of the peloton. He is trying to save his legs before a sprint finish so he can be fresh for the final mountain stages.
40km remaining from 201km
40km to go now, the pace is up, with Deceuninck back on the front.
This screen grab shows the terrain of the stage and the Alps looming.
Details surrounding Chris Froome's crash at the Critérium du Dauphiné are still being pieced together but for Dan Martin was just behind the incident and the effects have left an indelible mark on the Irishman.
"I keep seeing it. It's horrible to see something like that as well," Martin told Cyclingnews ahead of stage 5 at the Dauphiné.
This is a screen grab of the peloton in hot pursuit of the breakaway.
The speed is up!
30km remaining from 201km
The high speed is lining out the peloton. We could even see some echelons on the exposed roads.
26km remaining from 201km
The trio lead by 55 seconds now but refuse to give up.
23km remaining from 201km
Some riders grab bidons from their team cars before the 'bar' is closed with 20km to go.
20km remaining from 201km
The trio are refusing to give up and have extended their lead back over a minute.
16km remaining from 201km
The sprint teams are working together but no one team has yet taken control.
French team Arkea is riding for Greipel in the hope the German veteran can finally win.
12km remaining from 201km
A tail wind has split the attack.
Rossetto lost the wheels and had to fight to get back on.
11km remaining from 201km
De Marchi is driving the pace now as the road kicks up slightly.
Riders are being spat out of the peloton as they close the gap and set up the sprint.
8km remaining from 201km
The descent off the hills is helping the break stay away. they still have 30 seconds. They have a chance!
Team Ineos is leading the chase but where are the sprinter teams?
5km remaining from 201km
The gap is still 25 seconds with just 5km to go.
Now Bora take over. But is it too late?
Sunweb and Bahrain are also up front now, so are the GC contender teams.
3km remaining from 201km
The final kilometres is packed with corners and so won't be easy for the sprint teams.
2km remaining from 201km
The peloton can see the attackers but De Marchi goes solo.
Gilbert makes a solo attack and catches De Marchi.
Boasson Hagen is active too.
1km remaining from 201km
Final Km and into the corners and roundabouts.
Archibold leads Bennett as they chase the two.
Wout van Aert wins again!!
The late attacks were caught and Van Aert emerged and kicked at the right time in the curving finish.
He moved past Alaphilippe and won by two bike lengths. Wow!
Bennett tried to come up late after being too far back and finished second.
Alaphilippe was third, banging his bars in frustration.
It was an impressive show of speed and sprinting skills by the former cyclo-cross world champion.
This is the top ten stage result:
1 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Team Jumbo-Visma 5:00:34 2 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe 3 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 4 Lorrenzo Manzin (Fra) Vital Concept-B&B Hotel 5 Clement Venturini (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 6 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data 7 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Deceuninck-QuickStep 8 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 9 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 10 Mads Schmidt Würtz (Den) Katusha-Alpecin
The GC remains unchanged, with Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) retaining the leader's yellow jersey.
Van Aert won the sprint in the green points jersey, highlighting his consistency in this year's Dauphine.
These are his stage placing so far in the Dauphine: 3, 26, 2, 1,1.
Consistent to say the least.
There's rarely a quiet day in professional cycling and with consummate timing, the UCI have announced that the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal found Juan Jose Cobo guilty of an anti-doping rule violation (Use of a prohibited substance) based on abnormalities from 2009 and 2011 detected in his Biological Passport and imposed a three-year period of ineligibility on the rider.
Cobo may appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport within one month.
Being awarded a seventh Grand Tour victory will be little consolation for Chris Froome who is currently in intensive care after a devastating crash during the warm-up for the time trial at the Criterium du Dauphine.
Here the moment when Cobo celebrated in Madrid in 2011. Almost nine years later he has been accused of a Bio Passport violation.
Back to today's racing, here's a shot of Van Aert winning the sprint.
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) was happy to talk about his sprint and his back to back stage wins.
"Things are going pretty well this week. I wanted to do the sprint to get some points for the green jersey and it turns out I was the fastest," he said.
"It was quite a tricky final with a lot of corners, so we knew it was important to be in the front early. My teammates really helped to bring me to the front. Then in the last one kilometre the whole bunch was in one long line. I was sitting on the wheel of Alaphilippe. He launched the sprint after the last corner and I was able to passed him. It was a good sprint for me."
Asked what kinds of rider, he is, Van Aert said:
"It’s a luxury problem to have now. I did a good TT and a good sprint, I’m enjoying my time here. These weekend we’ll have a lot of mountains to climb with Steven Kruijswijk. He’ll get the support now, so my work is not finished."
To read more about Van Aert's sprint win and see our photo gallery and results, click here.
It's been another hectic day of racing alongside the Dauphine.
For all the news and results from the Ovo Energy Women's Tour, the Tour of Belgium and the latest on Chris Froome's health after his nasty crash, visit our home page here.
Thanks for joining us for full live coverage from the Dauphine.
We'll have full live coverage of stage 6 on Friday.
