Critérium du Dauphiné: Jake Stewart wins stage 5 as leader Remco Evenepoel involved in late spill

Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech) has taken a surprise bunch sprint victory on stage 5 of the 2025 Criterium du Dauphine in a chaotic dash for the line at Mâcon, while race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) was caught up in a late crash but could complete the stage.

In the last 300 metres Lidl-Trek were leading the string close to the barriers for leading favourite and stage 2 winner Jonathan Milan, but when Stewart powered past on their right, Milan began to fade notably.

Axel Laurence (Ineos Grenadiers) claimed second place behind the British sprinter, with Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) in third. Milan, shaking his head, had to settle for fifth.

After his fall well inside the safety zone, Evenepoel crossed the line a few minutes later, seemingly only suffering minor injuries, and his overall lead intact as the Dauphiné heads into three crunch stages in the mountains.

"That one feels good," the 25-year-old Steward said afterwards, as he celebrated his first WorldTour win and his second career victory, after a stage of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, in 2025.

"It was such a shame about [Pascal] Ackermann" - his teammate and sprinter who crashed out earlier on in the stage - "it would have been a great day for him too. I'm gutted he couldn't contest the finish."

"But the boys and the team backed me and they did an awesome job and I'm just so happy I could finish it off."

Stewart, however, wasn't allowed to comment on the prototype Factor aero bike he powered to victory aboard, admitting "I'm not allowed to say much" in his post-race interview.

How it unfolded

While Australian Michael Hepburn (Jayco-AlUla) was a non-starter, the remaining 149 riders started the stage in Saint-Priest, a dormitory town close to regional capital Lyon, with Enzo Leijnse (Picnic-PostNL), Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&BHotels) and Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) forming the initial break of the day.

The trio's gap rose to 2:00 as the temperatures soared to the low thirties, but as the sprinters' teams were keen to make the most of their last opportunity of the 2025 Dauphiné, their advantage never rose any higher. This in turn allowed two further riders, Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) and Thibaut Guernalec (Arkéa-B&BHotels) to bridge across, with just over 100 kilometres to go.

The five stage leaders came through the first of a chain of four minor midstage climbs, the category 4 Côte de Saint-Amour, with their scant advantage still hovering at two minutes. Meanwhile, there was bad news for XDS-Astana as Harold Tejada, seventh overall, abandoned and then German sprinter Ackermann also had to quit because of a crash. Leader Evenepoel was not immune to misfortune, either, losing long standing team captain Louis Vervaeke to a fall. Vervaeke suffered a broken collarbone, which throws his Tour de France participation seriously in question as well.

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With 50 kilometres left, the five leaders' advantage on three counter-attackers - former World TT Champion Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers), Gregor Muhlberger (Movistar) and Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) - was still at 1:09, while the main group were at 1:37. Lidl-Trek's fierce pace as the stage wound past vineyards and threaded its way through narrow village streets proved more than sufficient to reel in the trio of chasers shortly afterwards.

The five leaders were another story, staying away stubbornly as the race ground over the grinding last categorized challenge of the day, the category 3 Côte des Quatre Vents.

Finally, Thierry was the first to crack in the break halfway up the Quatre Vents, while Leijnse just managed to regain contact. One Picnic-PostNL rider angrily waved the TV camera bikes away from ahead of the peloton as they tried to chase down his breakaway teammate Leijnse on the fast descent and the flatter run that followed into Mâcon. Yet he need not have bothered as the four leaders, clearly visible to the pack ahead on the open rural roads, stubbornly persisted and somehow kept their scant options open.

After Leijnse cracked, the three left - Labrosse, Thomas and Guernalec - maintained a scant advantage of 12 seconds, and a succession of long straight highways and a headwind were exactly what they didn't need to be able to fend off the pack. Lidl-Trek and Ineos led the chase and finally with 1.6 kilometres to go, the trio's unity crumbled and they were pulled in.

Lidl-Trek moved en masse to the front on a big U-turn with 800 metres to go and shortly afterwards, on a deceptively sharp left-hand bend leading into the finishing straight, a crash involving a dozen riders including Remco Evenepoel left the race leader briefly on the ground. By the time the winner of Wednesday's stage had got back up and crossed the line, though, Stewart was already celebrating the biggest triumph of his career with his teammates.

"Lidl-Trek came up the inside, and it got a bit boxy, but I managed to find my way through on the U-bend and picked up Van der Poel's wheel," Stewart recounted, "and from there I knew I needed to kick before Milan and get a bit of a rush on him.

"I managed to kick at 300 metres, before he went, and held on all the way to the line."

With the last of the transition stages now behind them, on Friday the Dauphiné peloton moves into the high mountains for the first time on a short, punchy 126-kilometre run from Valserhone to Combloux. While the midstage steep Côte de Mont Saxonnex at km 87.6 could be one GC flashpoint, a summit finish consisting of two category 2 ascents in quick succession, the Côte de Domancy and Côte de Combloux, will likely prove the biggest climbing test of the day.

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