News: Win for Thomas at Dauphine

Only 24 hours after a disappointing time trial, Geraint Thomas surprised everyone to snatch the stage win after a late attack with a kilometre to go and win by millimetres ahead of Sonny Colbrelli.

News: Win for Thomas at Dauphine

Only 24 hours after a disappointing time trial, Geraint Thomas surprised everyone to snatch the stage win after a late attack with a kilometre to go and win by millimetres ahead of Sonny Colbrelli.

Photo: ASO/Fabien Boukla

Geraint Thomas: “It wasn’t planned. I knew that Bahrain Victorious didn’t have many guys left. I heard on the radio there was a gap and I went all in. I didn’t think I had it on the line. Poor man, Colbrelli went past so fast. It’s great to get that win for sure. Yesterday, I probably didn’t have great legs and I died in the second half. It’s nice to bounce back. It was a tense stage with the wind. And it’s good to get that win. This week-end will be a real test and we’ll see how it goes.”

THE STAGE
The peloton celebrated World Bicycle Day with a full-on battle from the start. Kasper Asgreen, 3rd overall, attacked as soon as the flag dropped and the pace was relentless until the finish in Saint-Vallier, where Lukas Pöstlberger held on to the yellow jersey 1’’ ahead of Alexey Lutsenko.

Geraint Thomas claimed his first victory in France since the 2018 Tour and moves up to 6th place in the general classification ahead of the three mountain stages caping off this 73rd edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné. The 141-man peloton left Saint-Chamond with a demanding stage ahead and a full-on battle from km 0. Kasper Asgreen, 3rd overall with very consistent results in the first four stages (8th, 4th, 10th and 3rd), wanted more and was the first rider attacking from the bunch, ahead of the cat-3 Côte du Planil.

The Danish winner of the Ronde van Vlaanderen was caught by the bunch upon which Tim Wellens set off to take the 2 KOM points at the summit (km 9.😎 and the battle for the break carried on until five attackers got together at km 20: Tim Wellens, Kasper Asgreen, Tsgabu Grmay, Julien Bernard and Cyril Gautier.

With Asgreen threatening the yellow and blue jersey, Lukas Pöstlberger’s Bora-Hansgrohe controlled the gap around 1’40’’ on the first part of the stage. Asgreen still managed to grab 3 bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint (km 52.4) but the peloton upped the tempo and quickly bring the gap down under one minute. Trek-Segafredo took the opportunity to send more men off the front: Jasper Stuyven attacking with Ryan Mullen. Josef Cerny followed their move and the three chasers joined the five leaders at km 68. With that support and with a crash in the bunch involving the white jersey Ilan Van Wilder, the gap reached a maximum of 1’55’’ at the bottom of the third categorised climb of the day, Côte de la Sizeranne (km 94).

Sonny Colbrelli sent a teammate to the front of the peloton to help control the break. The leading group split just ahead of the last 60km. Josef Cerny and Ryan Mullen dropped their companions, who were not working well together. The break was caught by the bunch with 51km to go whilst Cerny managed to hold on until 43km to go before being caught.

Tension was still running high in the peloton but the pace slightly dropped and Sven Eryk Bystrom attacked with 36km to go. He opened a 1’10’’ lead before Bahrain Victorious reacted. The Norwegian attacker still held a 55’’ advantage atop the cat-3 Col de Barbe Bleue. Bystrom was reeled in at the bottom of the last climb of the day, the super steep Côte de Montrebut (1.3km at 12%). Kwiatkowski sets the pace and Lawson Craddock then accelerated. At the summit (12km to go), he was 10’’ ahead of Quentin Pacher and the peloton was right behind the French puncheur.

Dylan Teuns gave his all for Colbrelli and Craddock was caught with 2.2km to go. Nobody could react to the acceleration from Geraint Thomas on a tight curve with 1km to go.
Colbrelli produces an impressive sprint but Thomas held on to win by a very narrow margin. The 10 bonus seconds on the line also helped him to move to 6th place overall, 14’’ behind the leader Lukas Pöstlberger.