Irish rider Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) spent much of
today’s stage 5 at Critérium du Dauphiné on the attack before being re-absorbed
by the peloton.
On the undulating 175.4km stage from Saint-Chamond
to Saint-Vallier, Mullen was one of the last riders to join the eight-man
breakaway and he was also one of the last men left standing from it before they
were caught.
When a reduced peloton approached the finish later in the day, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) attacked hard at a hairpin bend with 1km to go and got a gap. And while stage 3 winner Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) closed rapidly on him on the line, Thomas just about hung on to take the victory.
It was the first time the Welshman had
crossed the line first in a race since he won stage 12 to Alpe d'Huez on the
2018 Tour de France, though he recently won the overall at Tour de Romandie.
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Today at Critérium du Dauphiné the first breakaway
contained Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who was active from the climb
of Côte du Planil, just after the start. The Danish champion was 3rd overall
starting this morning and only nine seconds down on race leader Lukas Pöstlberger
(Bora-hansgrohe).
However, despite the threat posed by Asgreen, he managed
to get clear in the first escape, which also contained Julien Bernard
(Trek-Segafredo), Cyril Gautier (B&B Hotels), Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal)
and Tsgabu Grmay (BikeExchange).
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After the first hour of racing, and with just over 40km covered, the gap between the breakaway and the bunch led by Pöstlberger’s Bora-hansgrohe, was just over 1½ minutes. Asgreen took the intermediate sprint, and three seconds bonus, at Saint-Appolinard but crashed soon after.
The gap between breakaway and
bunch continued to drop and when it went under one minute Mullen went on the
attack from the peloton. He was with his team mate Jasper Stuyven and
Josef Cerny (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and they soon caught the breakaway.
That made for eight men out front and the gap to the breakaway quickly went to 1:40 after Mullen and the other reinforcements had arrived.
With just over 100km covered, Mullen and Cerny attacked
the breakaway and went clear, pulling out a gap of about 30 seconds on the
original escape group, which was caught by the bunch.
About 10km later, as Mullen and Cerny neared the top of the third climb of the day – the Cote de Hauterives peaked with just under 50km to go –the two riders split.
Cerny pushed on from Mullen, though both riders were caught around the top of the climb. From that point there were plenty of attacks, including a strong solo move by Sven Erik Bystrøm (UAE Team Emirates).
However, when the riders hit the final climb of the day,
the 1.4km Cote du Montrebut, the peloton was intact, though it split significantly
on the climb. Lawson Craddock (EF Education Nippo) went on the attack over the
climb, though he too was caught after a prolonged period leading out front
alone.
When the peloton hit the final 1km, it numbered no more
than 70 riders, with Thomas attacking at a hairpin and just holding on to win
from Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) and Alex Aranburu (Astana-Premier Tech)
in 3rd.
Pöstlberger, who took the race lead when he claimed a solo win on stage 2, retained the yellow jersey as he finished in the reduced bunch today. After his breakaway heroics today, Mullen finished back in 117th at 8:40.
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