Dan Martin finally flies Emirates
June 8 th 2018 - 16:49
An attack by Dan Martin with 3km to go to Valmorel earned him his first victory for UAE Team Emirates. Geraint Thomas reacted to become the third Team Sky rider to lead the 70th Critérium du Dauphiné as he took over from Gianni Moscon with two stages to go.
140 riders started stage 5 in Grenoble, a hosting city of the Critérium du Dauphiné for the 60th time in 70 editions! After the brutal uphill start that enabled Dario Cataldo (Astana) to score five more KOM points in the defence of his polka dot jersey, a 9-man breakaway was formed with Cataldo, Edward Ravasi (UAE Team Emirates), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Laurens De Plus (Quick Step), Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Matteo Fabbro (Katusha-Alpecin) and Carlos Verona (Mitchelton-Scott). Cataldo felt more comfortable in his polka dot jersey as he scored five more points at Côte de Naysord (km 4) and three more at Col des Mouilles (km 19.5) where Edet, the King of the Mountains of the 2013 Vuelta a España, passed in first position.
Edet at the front until 4.5km to go
Following the second climb of the day, Cataldo sat up. It gave some hopes to the eight remaining escapees. They reached a maximum advantage of 3’10’’ at km 46 but Team Sky resumed setting a steady pace at the front of the peloton, mainly with Luke Rowe and Dylan van Baarle. Bora-Hansgrohe took over to lead the bunch for most of the riding in the Tarentaise valley. At the beginning of the ascent to Valmorel, Ravasi, Edet and De Plus forged on as the bunch was again led by Team Sky. Edet attacked with 8km to go as Mitchelton-Scott felt that the rhythm wasn’t high enough. De Plus bridged the gap but couldn’t hold the Frenchman’s pace anymore with 6km remaining. Edet was eventually brought back 4.5km before the end.
First win of the year for Dan Martin
4km before the summit, Paris-Nice’s winner Marc Soler (Movistar) was the first of the big names to attack in the only hors-category uphill finish of the week. Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) countered him with 3km to go. Geraint Thomas (Sky) waited a bit too much to react. Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) initially took his wheel but couldn’t hold the pace of the Welshman who settled for second at Valmorel but took the yellow-blue jersey he only missed in the prologue because of crashing in a curve. Martin, the first Irishman to have made the final podium of the Dauphiné in 2015 (also in 2016), claimed his first victory for his new team after a difficult start of the 2018 season.