Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) laid down an ominous marker ahead of the Tour de France as he soloed to victory on stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné to take command atop the overall standings.
Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) won the sprint for second place ahead of Tobias Johannesen (Uno-X), 31 seconds down on the unassailable Vingegaard, who looks in a class of his own at this race.
The Dane eased clear alone on the category 2 climb of the Côte de Thésy after tracking an acceleration from Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and then dropping the Ecuadorian a mile or so from the summit. The onslaught, Vingegaard explained afterwards, had not been planned.
“I didn’t want to attack today,” Vingegaard said. “I just wanted to defend myself and then they attacked. I was working with Carapaz, and then he couldn’t follow anymore.”
Vingegaard reached the summit with 35 seconds in hand on a sizeable chasing group, and he proceeded to cruise inexorably to victory on the 14km run to the finish in Salins-les-Bains.
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) and Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) attempted to marshal a pursuit, but the relative lack of cohesion among the GC men doomed any faint hope of catching Vingegaard.
Egan Bernal (Ineos) tried to take advantage of that unruly chase by clipping off alone in pursuit of Vingegaard, but the Colombian was soon brought to heel by a group seemingly resigned to racing for second place, both on stage 5 and in the final overall standings.
Vingegaard now holds the yellow jersey with a buffer of 1:10 on O’Connor and 1:23 on Alaphilippe. “I just have to ride really defensively, I’m not the one who has to attack,” said Vingegaard.
Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) would always have been hard-pressed to defend his maillot jaune against this Vingegaard on this terrain, but the Dane’s spell in the overall lead already effectively ended when he fell at the foot of the final climb.
“Matteo Jorgenson dropped his chain and I needed to deviate off my line in the corner,” said Bjerg, who remounted and declared himself relatively unhurt at the finish. “It was still really nice to pretend to be one of the big guys with a yellow jersey today.”
As the early break was being reeled in at the base of the Côte de Thésy, Carapaz ignited the race among the GC men with a stinging attack that only Vingegaard and – briefly – Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) could follow. Vingegaard, however, took over shortly afterwards and delivered a remarkable solo exhibition.
How it unfolded
After Wednesday’s individual time trial had brought some definition to the general classification picture, the 191km run from Cormoranche-sur-Saône to Salins-les-Bains presented itself as an opportunity for escapees.
One of the foremost exponents of the art, Thomas De Gent (Lotto-Dstny) was part of the break that formed inside the first 5km, with Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X), Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies), and Leon Heinschke (Team DSM) joining the Belgian at the head of the race.
The sextet soon established a lead of maximum lead of four minutes, which put Politt in the virtual maillot jaune, though UAE Team Emirates and Soudal-QuickStep’s policing efforts ensured the break’s buffer never spiralled out of hand.
The gap had already begun to shrink at the top of the day’s first classified climb, the Côte de Château-Chalon, which came at the midpoint of the stage. Despite the rugged terrain, the average speed of the break remained well north of 45kph until deep into the stage, but the peloton inexorably began to close in on them as the afternoon drew on.
The Côte d'Ivory with 36km saw a discernible increase in pace in the peloton, and the break’s lead was all but halved on the climb, dropping to a minute by the summit. By now, EF Education-EasyPost had increased the pace-making efforts at the head of the bunch on behalf of Carapaz, with Jumbo-Visma working to tee up Vingegaard ahead of the final category 2 climb of the Côte de Thésy.
The maillot jaune Bjerg was a faller just as the bunch turned onto the climb, with the Dane forced into a desperate pursuit to try to keep his jersey. While he was chasing back on, however, the race ignited, as Carapaz sprung onto the offensive, with Vingegaard and, briefly, Alaphilippe tracking him.
Alaphilippe tapped out after a couple of hundred metres, however, while Carapaz and Vingegaard proceeded to catch and pass the remnants of the early break. At first, Vingegaard preferred to mark Carapaz rather than collaborate with the Ecuadorian as they built a lead of 20 seconds over the fractured peloton.
A mile or so from the summit, however, Vingegaard finally came through to give Carapaz a turn. Then, just a few hundred metres later, he was alone at the front after a seated acceleration that Carapaz simply couldn’t follow. Vingegaard was now in a race entirely of his own, nothing but open road ahead of him.
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