As it happened: Sprinters battle it out in Mâcon after breakaway caught at last minute

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné!

Hi everyone, I'm Matilda and I'll be taking you through today's stage.

The riders are about to roll out for the neutral.

Neutral start

And they're away for the neutral

12.2km of neutral today – long! And then 183km of the real stage.

Today is a hard stage to predict. The start and finish are both flat, but the four categorised climbs in the second half of the day could lend themselves to late attacks, or a breakaway survival.

After yesterday's time trial, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) is leading the GC, but only by four seconds over second-placed Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

After a super strong TT, green jersey Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is also only 14 seconds away from yellow, so he might be looking at today's profile and thinking a stint in the maillot jaune is possible.

Here's the peloton rolling out from Saint-Priest under lovely weather – around 29 degrees Celsius today.

No surprise that Evenepoel is hoping for a sprint today – anything else could see him lose the yellow jersey to an attacker.

Still a few minutes of this long neutral to go before the flag drops.

These two have been enjoying racing together this week.

Official start

Official start given! They're away properly for stage 5.

183km and four categorised climbs await on the road to Mâcon.

One non-starter today: Michael Hepburn of Jayco AlUla.

He came straight from the Giro and has had a tough race so far.

Three riders in the lead already: Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Enzo Leijnse (Picnic PostNL) and Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).

They have 55 seconds already.

The break is not necessarily fully established here, some teams are still pulling.

Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) is on the attack.

Cort is in the gap between the bunch and the break now.

Just over 10km completed.

The gap is growing towards two minutes for our leaders.

All change now - Cort is caught and the peloton are chasing again.

Around 20km completed and the gap is only 35 seconds now.

Looks like a rider is on the counterattack from the bunch...

That's Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) on the counterattack.

Time gaps are a little unreliable via the radio but sounds like Tronchon is 40 seconds behind the break, with the peloton 1:20 back.

Time gaps are growing again now – maybe the peloton are okay with this break. Leaders at 2:20 up and Tronchon is at 50 seconds.

Tronchon is caught by the bunch. Break around 2 minutes ahead.

30km completed.

Lidl-Trek are controlling things, so the gap is only 1:40 now. They don't want to risk this break going to the finish, they want a sprint for Jonathan Milan.

145km to go

Just to keep you updated on where we are in the race – just over 35km done, and 145km to go to Mâcon.

The first climb comes after 90km, so a little way to go yet.

Things definitely seem to be settling a bit now, but it's clear that the break – or at least this break – probably doesn't have much chance of winning the stage, they're on a tight leash.

Expect some more attacks in the climby second half of the stage, though.

Looking back to the start – this guy was in good spirits (and photographer Dario Belingheri was getting creative).

One peloton birthday today – Attila Valter is 27 today and his treat is riding stage 5 of the Dauphiné!

As it happens, I'm also turning 27 tomorrow, but I've taken the day off.

This is why Lidl-Trek are keeping things close: they want to go for another stage win with Milan, who triumphed on stage 2.

He's very much the fastest sprinter here, but has struggled already on the climbs, so today's finale will be a challenge.

Lidl-Trek's Julien Bernard explained the team's plan at the start today:

"We're going to do everything we can. It's our last chance for a big win," he said. "We have the best train in the race and it will be good practice before the Tour de France. The ideal scenario for us is to have a small group at the front and work with Israel to set up a sprint. We'll try to control the gap and limit the accelerations on the climbs. And even if he's in difficulty, we'll wait for him and try to bring him back, like in Issoire, hoping for the same finish."

Milan is also dreaming of winning the first stay of the Tour and wearing the yellow jersey.

Here's Labrosse leading the breakaway.

And here's Remco Evenepoel resplendent in gold and yellow.

Latest gap is coming through at 2:05, and apparently Israel Premier-Tech are helping Lidl-Trek.

Think they'd be going for Jake Stewart today, who did sprint well on the strange opening stage.

Things are pretty stable at the moment. The peloton are keeping the gap at a steady two minutes.

Ooh, actually sounds like the peloton are upping the pace a bit – gap is suddenly down to just under a minute.

An abandon: Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep).

110km to go

As the gap is down, a few riders are trying to attack and bridge the gap. Will hopefully tell you who shortly...

Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) and Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) are the riders on the attack, just a few seconds ahead of the bunch.

5 in front

Thomas and Guernalec have joined the leaders.

But, the gap is only 40 seconds.

100km to go

Just over 80km completed.

The five leaders are working well together which has bought them a bit of time – up to a minute.

Lidl-Trek have been doing the work to keep the gap small.

It's going out a bit again, up to 1:30 now after 90km.

Climb: Côte de Saint-Amour (cat. 4)

The break are onto the first climb of the day. It's just 1.2km in length with an average gradient of 5.6%.

KOM: Côte de Saint-Amour

Just one KOM point available at the top of this climb, and Thomas takes it.

Break's lead is up to 1:40 at the top.

Reminder of what's to come in terms of climbs:

• 74km to go – Col de Fontmartin (cat. 3, 6.7km @ 4.4%)
• 62.5km to go – Col de Boubon (cat. 3, 4.7km @ 5.2%)
• 27.3km to go – Côte des Quatre Vents (cat. 3, 5.3km @ 4.6%)

The TotalEnergies duo of Mathieu Burgaudeau and Matteo Vercher are attacking from the peloton.

They've just been joined by Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers).

Climb: Col de Fontmartin (cat. 3)

This trio are now chasing the leaders as we start the second climb of the day.

6.7km coming up, 4.4% average gradient.

80km to go

Chasers are 40 seconds behind the leaders, peloton around 25 seconds behind that.

Foss is driving in the chasers, but they're still a minute behind the leaders, and just 20 seconds ahead of the bunch.

KOM: Col de Fontmartin

Labrosse takes the maximum two points over this climb, one for Thomas.

Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) looks to be struggling in the bunch on the climb, which is surprising.

Climb: Col du Boubon (cat. 3)

Already onto the next climb – this one is 4.7km at 5.2%.

Peloton now closing in on the three chasers. They did not get very far.

As those three are caught, another few riders are trying to counter.

Bike change for Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) so he's chasing back on now.

The riders chasing are: Foss, Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar) and Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost).

They're only 34 seconds behind the leaders.

Abandon

Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) has called it a day after a crash earlier.

Ineos Grenadiers are moving to the front of the peloton. They did a bit of work earlier too, even though Foss is up the road.

Bayer is dropped from the chasers.

Ineos now stop chasing, back to Lidl-Trek. It's not clear what the British team are up to today.

Latest view of the peloton.

Crash

Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) goes down on a corner on a descent.

The five leaders are now a minute ahead of the chasers, and 1:26 ahead of the peloton.

Surprisingly the leaders are drawing out their gap, at a point when you'd think the action would be hotting up.

Probably Lidl-Trek don't want to ride too hard in the hills.

The chasers are caught by the peloton.

45km to go

Looking more likely that we have a sprint coming. Just one climb left for attacks (and for Jonathan Milan to survive).

Breakaway are still riding hard and working well together, so the peloton are going to have to put some effort in to catch them.

The breakaway are all still rolling through on the flat, but the peloton have taking 30 seconds out of the gap in five kilometres.

35km to go

Gap is still 1:10.

Climb: Côte des Quatre Vents (cat. 3)

Onto the final climb – 5.4km at 4.6%.

Some teams are trying to make things hard for the sprinters.

30km to go

The gap has finally dipped under a minute, thanks to some work from Alpecin-Deceuninck on the front.

Milan is right on the back of the Alpecin train, so if they're trying to make things hard for him/easier for Van der Poel, it's not worked yet.

Thierry is the first of the five breakaway riders to be dropped.

Uno-X move up to help the chase in the peloton.

Gap is really coming down fast now – just 30 seconds now.

Visma-Lease a Bike are all right up the front of the peloton, too. They don't want to get caught out by any attacks.

Meanwhile, Leijnse is the next rider to drop from the break.

Tobias Foss now pacing in the bunch.

Split in the peloton

Split!

A small split cracks open just over the top of the climbs – Milan is on the wrong side of it, so Alpecin and Visma's work worked – but it's only small for now with Lidl-Trek already working to close it.

25km to go.

Leijnse has rejoined the leaders up front, a good effort from him, but just 20 seconds of a gap now.

Milan and co are back in the peloton, but it's still somewhat strung out. GC teams working hard to keep their riders safe.

20km to go

Still a 29 second gap! The peloton should be able to close this but they are leaving it late.

Israel-Premier Tech move to the front of the bunch, working for Stewart.

And Lidl-Trek are also finally back on the front in the form of Julien Bernard.

15km to go

The gap is still 30 seconds.

This needs a bit more commitment from the bunch...

The four leaders are really pushing a big pace. They'll be starting to believe now that there is at least a chance of them surviving to the finish, but of course, it is slim.

Lidl-Trek are really digging into the chase here, but not rapidly eating into the gap.

Gap dips below 20 seconds, as some more Lidl-Trek riders get organised towards the front.

Uno-X and Israel are helping out in the chase now.

10km to go

Catch should be on the way, and then it's sprint time.

The peloton can see the breakaway now.

Julien Bernard just keeps working and working today. Huge efforts.

8km to go

Leijnse is caught, three Frenchman are valiantly holding on out front, 15 seconds ahead of the bunch.

None of the sprint trains want to commit too much to the chase; they want to save their energy for the actual sprint.

Crash

Louis Rouland (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) goes down in an isolated crash. Two teammates stop to help him.

5km to go

The catch hasn't happened yet but is imminent, just a handful of seconds is the gap now.

Ineos are in line at the front of the bunch. Lidl look a little lost a bit further down the group.

3km to go

This is getting tense! 10 seconds!

Peloton are getting a bit desperate, they're just lacking that last charge to actually close the gap.

The three riders in the break are giving everything. Still eight seconds.

2km to go

It's going to be late heartbreak or an amazing survival...

Lidl-Trek really not in position. Uno-X, Ineos and Visma are.

Break caught

Just under 2km to go and the break are finally swallowed up. They gave a good fight.

Possbily messy sprint incoming, few teams are properly organised.

Lidl-Trek are coming up though.

Van der Poel is still in the mix in green...

Last kilometre

Here we go, round the roundabout and they're sprinting!

Crash

Evenepoel comes down! He'll be safe as it's in the last 5km.

Lidl-Trek hit the front...

Jake Stewart wins!

Jake Stewart wins the stage!

He went early off the back of the Lidl-Trek train and steals the momentum from Milan!

That's a big win for the Brit.

Milan just couldn't quite respond when Stewart accelerated, and the Italian settles for fifth.

Second place goes to Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers), third is Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility).

Watching the replay, it's amazing how easy Stewart made that look, against some big name sprinters.

Looks like Evenepoel came off in the exit of the about turn on the roundabout in the final kilometre. Doesn't look too serious.

That's a first WorldTour win for Stewart, and the photofinish shows it was by a bike length and a half.

Results

Here's today's results.

Results powered by FirstCycling

Jake Stewart's reaction at the finish:

First win on Factor's interesting new bike. Stewart was tight lipped about that in his interview!

Read more about that: How did they keep this a secret? Insane new Factor prototype blows minds at the Dauphiné

Here's the winning moment for Stewart.

Here's the final kilometre:

No important changes to the GC today – as we said, Evenepoel gets the same time as the bunch since his crash was in the 5km safe zone.

The crash was at a low speed and as he takes to the podium, he looks pretty okay.

Jake Stewart collects his medal.

Another yellow jersey for Remco Evenepoel.

Mathieu van der Poel keeps the green jersey – he was ninth today.

Stewart and Milan are equal on points in joint second, 28 points down on Van der Poel.