Jonas Vingegaard took an unexpected, even to him, victory on stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné and moved into the race lead with three days in the mountains still to come.
The Dane simply followed Richard Carapaz’s attack on the Côte de Thésy climb with 17 km remaining to the finish line in Salins-les-Bains, the pair working well together for a moment before Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) could no longer handle the pace and Vingegaard forged on alone.
The chase behind, containing nearly two dozen riders, including most of the GC favourites, refused to work together and bring back the Jumbo-Visma rider. Vingegaard sailed into the finish solo, taking 31 seconds out of his opponents. Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal – Quick Step) was second across the line, just edging out Tobias Halland Johannessen of Uno-X.
Stage 4 winner and overnight leader Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates), hampered in part by a late crash just before Carapaz’s attack, finished more than two minutes down and fell out of the yellow jersey. Vingegaard now leads second-place Ben O’Connor (Ag2r Citroën) by 1:10, with Alaphilippe third at 1:23.
“I actually didn’t want to attack today,” Vingegaard said after the finish. “I just wanted to defend myself. And then they attacked and I was working with Richard and then he couldn’t follow anymore.
“Yeah, I mean I’m of course very happy with the win today, but I think on a day like today with what happened in Annecy it doesn’t really matter about cycling,” Vingegaard said, becoming emotional. “My thoughts are with all the families.”
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