Critérium du Dauphiné: Mark Padun wins stage 7 atop La Plagne as Richie Porte takes lead

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Mark Padun (Bahrain Victorious) prevailed on the queen stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné atop the summit finish of La Plagne, jumping away eight kilometres from the top before soloing to the line.

The Ukrainian dropped Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) along the way to seal victory, but further back the GC fireworks were set off as Richie Porte (Ineos Grenadiers) took second place and moved into the leader's yellow jersey.

36-year-old Porte was part of the same attack as Padun, accompanied by Movistar's Enric Mas as the pair rode the latter half of the climb between the peloton and the attackers.

Kuss dropped back after Padun's race-winning attack four kilometres from the line, while further back David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën) were among the attackers. 

Mas' teammate Miguel Ángel López made it across to the chase group, ending up alone with Porte heading into the final kilometre, but the Australian proved the stronger man even after riding on the front with Mas on his wheel earlier on. One last attack saw Porte take second and the race lead as Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Premier Tech) trailed in a minute behind Padun.

"It's incredible. An incredible moment for me," Padun said after the stage. "It's my first WorldTour victory in one of the hardest stages of the Critérium du Dauphiné. Also honestly the last six stages I felt so bad it was incredible.

"Every day I was thinking it was maybe impossible to finish the race. When I crossed the finish line I had the feeling that I'd wake up in my bed, but it's not a dream and thank Jesus for this fact!

"I never thought I would be riding in the top 10. I thought maybe I'd arrive in the first 20 guys When Richie Porte attacked I tried to close the gap because my leader Jack Haig was in the group.

"When I saw we were four in front with a small gap, I thought 'why not do something and maybe they'd show me on TV for my mother'. And then Sepp Kuss attacked and I just decided to go. For me it was really unexpected when he dropped and then I just went full gas and hoped nobody would catch me anymore.

"After the last year I was thinking that maybe cycling is not my sport. It's incredible. I want to thank Jesus and thank my team who believed in me and who didn't tell me stop and wait for Jack. They just let me go for the victory and I'm thankful for them for this."

Porte now lies 17 seconds up on Lutsenko and 29 seconds up on Thomas ahead of Sunday's final stage to the summit finish at Les Gets.

How it unfolded

Despite some expectations within the peloton that the stage might have a gentler start than previous days, the battle to get into the break raged for almost 70km. Eventually, Marco Haller (Bahrain Victorious), Alexis Renard (Israel Start-Up Nation), Martin Salmon (Team DSM) and B&B p/b KTM duo Pierre Rolland and Franck Bonnamour managed to break the elastic.

As these five went through the intermediate sprint and onto the first climb, the fourth-category Côte de Venthon, polka dot jersey Matt Holmes (Lotto Soudal) also managed to go clear from the peloton. The Briton was soon joined by Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) and Martijn Tusveld (Team DSM), then by Michael Valgren, Lawson Craddock (EF Education-Nippo), Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic), and UAE Team Emirates's pair Stef Cras and Mikkel Bjerg.

Climbing the HC-category Col du Pré, Renard and Salmon fell back, while Valgren, Craddock, Arcas, Cras, Elissonde and Tusveld bridged up to the three leaders. Following some strong pace-making by teammate Valgren, which resulted in King of the Mountains leader Holmes being dropped, Craddock took full advantage by leading over the summit, and did the same as the escapees crossed the second-category Cormet de Roselend a few kilometres later.

Back in the bunch, Movistar and Ineos were prominent at the front, with a clutch of Astana riders tucked in behind them protecting race leader Alexey Lutsenko. The peloton went over the Roselend 2-45 down on the break.

Heading down the tricky descent, Valgren and Brenner edged away from the break, which split into several parts. Coming into Bourg-Saint-Maurice, not far from the foot of the final climb, Arcas, Tusveld and Bjerg made it five up front, but Valgren soon pushed on again, this time on his own.

But any thoughts of victory that the Dane might have harboured soon evaporated. With Ineos driving at the front, the bunch reached the first slopes of the 17km climb to La Plagne just 1:40 in arrears.

Although Rolland and Elissonde bridged up to Valgren and boosted the break's pace in the process, their fate was inevitable. Valgren dropped back first. Then, as four Movistar riders upped the pace in the yellow jersey group, Elissonde and Rolland fist-bumped and were swallowed up, almost 11km remaining to the finish.

With Carlos Verona in the vanguard, Movistar kept the pace high. When Verona yielded with 9km left, stage six winner Alejandro Valverde took over. When the veteran eased off a few hundred metres later, Porte sensed an opportunity and jumped clear, and was quickly joined by Mas, Kuss and Padun.

The quartet had opened up a lead of a dozen seconds or so when Padun and Kuss went clear, Porte receiving no help from GC rival Mas in trying to close down the gap. Back in the yellow jersey group, Lutsenko was still looking comfortable as teammate Ion Izagirre set the pace.

With four kilometres to go, Padun attacked and dropped Kuss. Meanwhile, Movistar's Miguel Ángel López had also accelerated away from the yellow jersey group, which split to pieces. Izagirre was dropped, as O'Connor, Thomas, Gaudu and Lutsenko joined López.

This was a trigger for a series of attacks in this group. Gaudu had a dig, then O'Connor, as Thomas and Lutsenko fell back. These surges carried López, O'Connor and Gaudu up to Porte and Mas, the latter finally going to the front to set the pace for his Movistar teammate.

In the final kilometre, Mas and then O'Connor fell off the pace, as Porte and López caught and passed Kuss. No sooner had they done so, than Porte made a final acceleration that distanced López.

There was no catching Padun, though, the Ukrainian having plenty of time to celebrate a win that surprised him as much as it did those watching. For Porte there was considerable consolation in the yellow jersey and another shot at the Dauphiné title that's proved so elusive to the Australian in the past.