Criterium du Dauphine – Stage 5 of 7 complete
Overall: 1 Chris Froome GBR 21:24:59; 2 Richie Porte AUS +0:07; 3 Alberto Contador ESP +0:27; Dan Martin IRE +0:37; 5 Julian Alaphiliippe FRA +0:42; 6 Adam Yates GBR +0:52
Stage 5: 1 Chris Froome GBR 3:32:20; 2 Richie Porte AUS +0:01; 3 Adam Yates GBR +0:19; 4 Dan Martin IRE +0:19; 5 Alberto Contador ESP +0:21; 6 Romain Bardet FRA +0:25
Britain’s reigning Tour de France champion Chris Froome grabbed the overall lead of the Criterium du Dauphine on Friday after racing to victory in the fifth stage.
Froome took the leader’s jersey from his great rival Alberto Contador, who could only come home fifth in the mountain finish of Vaujany and was left 27 seconds adrift overall.
Team Sky rider Froome pipped Australian Richie Porte to the line after they broke away late in the stage from the rest of the pack and claimed victory to fire an ominous warning in the lead-up to this year’s Tour.
Another Briton, Adam Yates, was third and Ireland’s Dan Martin fourth.
Froome, 31, won the Dauphine in 2013 and 2015 – and each time went on to ride to victory in the Tour de France.
“It’s a great feeling to have the yellow jersey,” said Froome. “It’s a good sensation but there’s a lot of time to go between now and the Tour de France.”
Despite his advantage, Froome refused to write off Contador.
“He was probably not so well today although I didn’t expect such a big difference on such a short climb,” said the Briton.
“But I have raced against him many times before and he will never give up. We will see what happens tomorrow.”
Saturday’s stage will be the penultimate of the race, another mountain climb from La Rochette to Meribel before a simpler mountainous stage from Pont-de-Claix to the finish on Sunday in SuperDevoluy.
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