Critérium du Dauphiné: Alejandro Valverde wins stage 6

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Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) snatched the stage victory from Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) in Le Sappey-en-Chartreuse after the first climbs of the Critérium du Dauphiné failed to split the overall contenders but cracked race leader Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) who was distanced on the Col de la Porte and finished 8:12 down.

After a series of attacks by Geoghegan Hart, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) were caught on the climb to the finish, Geoghegan Hart attacked one final time with 300 metres to go after his team leader Geraint Thomas let a gap go. However, Valverde was quick to surge across and then kick past the 2020 Giro d'Italia winner to take his second victory of 2021.

Valverde hugged his teammate as he rode on and tried to recover from his effort, happy to have taken the win.

"I'm super happy to win at 41. First of all I have to thank my team who have worked incredibly all week. For the final part, Superman Lopez said to me 'shall I pull', and I said 'Okay'. To be honest I have to thank him because he did an incredible job.

"[Geoghegan Hart] opened up really strongly, and I saw Thomas was gapped from him, so I couldn't hesitate, I had to go. I tried to keep it steady at first but when I saw the barriers I just went all-out."

Time trial winner Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Premier Tech) finished in the group of 25 riders and now leads his teammate Ion Izagirre by eight seconds in the overall classification. Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished strongly in fourth place and climbed to third overall at 12 seconds. Thomas is fourth at 13 seconds.

However those time gaps are expected to explode in the final weekend of the race in the high mountains, with finishes up at La Plagne and then Les Gets.

How it unfolded

After five days of rolling roads across central France, the Dauphiné finally headed onto more traditional roads for stage 5 and the first mountains of this year's race.

The 167km stage was a day of two parts, with largely flat roads for 110km before the climbs of Col de la Placette, the Col de la Porte  and the climb up to the finish in Le Sappey en Chartreuse all in the final 50km.

The early flat roads inspired a number of attacks but for 40km everything was pulled back and then other moves launched, with the average speed over 50km/h.

Greg Van Avermaet (AG2R Citroën) and Matthew Holmes (Lotto Soudal) made a move on an uncategorised climb after and suddenly the break of the day formed. 

Also in there were Lawson Craddock (EF Education-Nippo), Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Omer Goldstein (Israel Start-Up Nation), Laurent Pichon (Arkéa-Samsic), Sven Erik Bystrøm (UAE Team Emirates), Josef Cerny (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), Barnabas Peak (Team BikeExchange), Martin Salmon (Team DSM), Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels) and Jan Bakelants (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert).

The peloton let them go but pegged the gap at around 2:30 with Bora-Hansgrohe riding to defend Pöstlberger's yellow and blue leader's jersey.

After a fast ride towards the mountains, Holmes was first to the summit of the Col de la Placette, taking five points. Soon after Van Avermaet won the intermediate sprint, perhaps practicing his breakaway skills ready for the Tour de France.

After 125km the valley road began to climb up to the Col de Porte. The climb is officially only 7.4km long but the valley road added a further 15km of hard riding that soon began to shake out the breakaway and the peloton. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) was one of the first to drop back after four intense days of racing, a win and three second places for the Italian.

Bernard was the first to attack and split the 14-rider break as the Col de la Porte began in earnest. Holmes went after him but the Frenchman pushed on alone as the others faded and were gradually swept up.

Tony Martin set the pace for Jumbo-Visma and the peloton, reminding us that the Tour de France is less than four weeks ago and bringing the gap to the break to below a minute. However, the breakaway refused to give up and Holmes upped the pace, with only Craddock, Bakelants, Perez, and Bonnamour staying with him.

At 2.5km from the top of the Col de Porte, the six leaders: Holmes, Bernard, Perez, Bonnamour, Craddock and Bakelants lead by 45 seconds as Astana-Premier Tech took over the pacing and upped the pace in pursuit of a possible stage victory. Their pace hurt Pöstlberger and he lost contact and his leader's jersey.

Up front, Craddock attacked and split the six riders, going on to summit the Col de la Porte first. Holmes, Bakelants, and Bernard kept chasing but so did the peloton and they were only 30 seconds back at the top.

Craddock dived down the descent but the climb to the finish was 11km long even if it was described as a 3.7km climb at 5.4 per cent. In truth it included a flat section and then a further climb up to the line.

Movistar took over after the fast descent and on the lower slopes of the climb, their pace hurting and then distancing Chris Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation). They were riding for Lopez who made an attack and then when it was clear the climb was too fast for attacks to go away, the Colombian put himself at the service of veteran Valverde, who again managed to fight back the years and win.