On today’s longest stage of the eight-day race, Mitchelton-SCOTT worked to keep Adam Yates safe once again to maintain his overall race lead in Critérium du Dauphiné after a breakaway trio stayed away to the finish line.
With his teammates surrounding him, Yates was never in trouble and made it through the stage to finish in eighth place, six-minutes behind the stage winner Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep).
Three open up a huge lead
The 229km day included eight-climbs and was characterised by a breakaway of three-riders, Alaphilippe, Alessandro Demarchi (CCC) and Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe). The trio jumped away from the peloton in the early stages but as Team Sunweb led the initial chase, it looked as though the trio wouldn’t be given much freedom to stay away.
However, after 50kilometres of racing the peloton had given up and allowed the group to ride away. Working well together, the three-riders opened up huge lead of over 13minutes at one point, with Mitchelton-SCOTT heading the peloton behind.
Rain and a long way to go
The majority of the stage was pretty uneventful with the leaders maintaining their healthy advantage in rainy conditions.
With no threat to Yates’ overall lead, the bunch passed the finish line for the first time with a nine-minute deficit and 12kilometres remaining.
Over the final climb, the peloton reduced but Yates had teammate Jack Haig for company, navigating the final descent safely and keeping an eye out for any late attackers.
Tomorrow’s test
The Brit finishes the day with the same lead of four seconds over his nearest rival Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), with a crucial and brutally hard stage coming tomorrow, which includes three first-category climbs and a Hors Category climb to finish.
Adam Yates – Overall race leader
“It wasn’t a full gas stage. The three guys away were quite far down on the GC and everyone else was happy with what we were doing. On the last climb, we expected the race to be a little harder.
“It’s a short stage tomorrow and the day after, so I’m sure a lot of guys want to break away. There’ll be a long climb of 20km to finish with.
“I almost haven’t done anything like that this year yet but I feel good. It’s hard to say what will happen. We’re all still very close on GC.”
Criterium du Dauphiné – Stage 6 Results:
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) 6:00:54
2. Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) ST
3. Alessandro de Marchi (CCC) +0:22
7. Jack Haig (Mitchelton-SCOTT) +6:10
General Classification after stage 6:
1. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT) 23:35:04
2. Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) +0:04
3. Tejay van Garderen (EF Education First) +0:06
Photos courtesy of Kristof Ramon
