Critérium du Dauphiné: Lukas Pöstlberger wins stage 2

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For the second day in the row a rider from the break came out on top on stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné with Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) attacking from the break and holding off the peloton to take a dramatic win in Saugues.

Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) finished second for the second day in a row, while Alejandro (Valverde) completed the top three to take third after Pöstlberger held on for the win despite a frantic late chase from the peloton over the final two climbs.

The win was enough to put the former maglia rosa Pöstlberger into the overall lead after overnight leader Brent Van Moer (Lotto Soudal) was dropped on the penultimate climb alongside Chris Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation).

The stage came down to the wire with Pöstlberger holding a slim 22-second lead over the chasing group when he crested the top of the Côte de Masset with 4km to go. The Bora rider had been in a five-man group that formed early in the stage and one-by-one he dropped his companions before soloing clear of last man Shane Archbold (Deceuninck-QuickStep) with 17km remaining.

Pöstlberger built up a lead in excess of two minutes as he hurtled into valley and he paced himself on the penultimate climb of the Côte de la forêt de Pourcheresse as Bahrain Victorious and Ineos Grenadiers began to chase.

It looked as though the main field had the situation under control, even when Ben O’Connor put in a valiant late attack but when the Australian was caught at the top of the Côte de Masset the lone leading Pöstlberger still had a marginal lead. He tore down the final descent to take the stage win by 11 seconds. The Austrian now leads Colbrelli by 12 seconds, with Valverde a further eight seconds back.

"I planned it a few weeks ago already. I looked at the first two stages here and thought that maybe with not so many sprinters here there is a good chance that the breakaway will survive.

"I gave it a try yesterday but my teammate made the break. In the end it was too hard a circuit for him but today I had a shot," Pöstlberger said.

"It was hard. I was trying to pace myself on the climb and then recover on the descent but the last kicker got me. I couldn't pull the handlebars anymore. The last kilometre was awful. It was pain. It means a lot. When I won in the Giro, I was a nobody and I was quite young. Winning here and planning this in advance was a real big achievement and a real big victory for me.

"I wasn't expecting [yellow] to be honest. It's a really good bonus to be in the leader's jersey tomorrow."

How it unfolded

ASO provided another stage profile fit for the break and Pöstlberger, Anthony Delaplace (Arkéa-Samsic), Matt Holmes (Lotto Soudal), Shane Archbold (Deceuninck-QuickStep), and Robert Power (Qhubeka Assos) duly accepted the invitation before establishing a 46-second lead.

Lotto Soudal played it smarted by avoiding the responsibility of chasing by putting Holmes in the break and the leaders established a lead of over five minutes as they raced over the first climb of the day, the Col de Peyra Taillade.

As Holmes grabbed mountain points to secure the KOM jersey Power was surprisingly dropped with 61km to go with the Australian later abandoning the race altogether. The break hit the next climb of the Côte d'Auvers with three minutes over the peloton but when that advantage dropped to just two minutes it looked as though the peloton were about to make amends for their mistakes on stage 1.

Pöstlberger had other ideas. He pushed with Archbold holding on for dear life but even when the New Zealander was able to give a turn it was clear that the Bora rider was in a different league whenever the road pointed upwards.

The Austrian was finally alone Côte de la forêt de Pourcheresse and with 10km both the yellow jersey and Chris Froome began to struggle. Just five hundred metres later they were toast – for the day at least – but the pace at the front of the peloton began to wear on many a rider and by the summit the peloton had been reduced to less than 30 riders. There was a brief moment when Geraint Thomas responded to a move from Bahrain and Valverde but the most significant attack came from Ben O’Connor, who was only brought to heel with 4km to go.

The terrain pointed to a Pöstlberger win from that point with a fast descent towards the line but Bahrain and Movistar set up one final chase with the last of their domestiques. However, it was Pöstlberger, a rider who hadn’t taken a WorldTour win since that stunning victory on the opening stage of the 2017 Giro who held on.