Dan Martin’s rise up the GC leaderboard continued on today’s sixth stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné as he moved up to fourth overall. The UAE Team Emirates rider finished in third place on the stage from Frontenex to La Rosière Espace San Bernardo, 23″ behind stage winner Pello Bilbao (Astana).
The route of today’s stage was the same as the riders will face on the 11th stage of the upcoming Tour de France and a group of 27 riders was formed at kilometre 20 on the hors-category Montée de Bisanne which made up the main breakaway of the day. Amongst the riders in this group was Martin’s team-mate Valerio Conti.
Bilbao who had also been in the break stayed away to take the win, but the group behind with the GC favourites exploded with only the strong surviving. Race leader Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) took second place, Martin third, Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) fourth and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) fifth.
The move saw Martin jump up 10 places in the overall classification. He now sits fourth at 2-30 minutes from Thomas. Yates holds second at 1-29 and Bardet third at 2-01.
“I wanted to take advantage of the good legs that I have, but it truly was a hard day,” Martin said. “The final was very tactical, maybe that’s because the classification men are a little tired, and we weren’t able to pull in Bilbao like I would’ve wanted.
“Let’s see tomorrow how I am, but I’ll try to do well in the final stage, and my overall classification will benefit as a result.”
The last stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné travels 136 kilometres from Moutiers to the summit finish up to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc.
Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 6 results:
1 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team 3:34:11
2 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:21
3 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:23
4 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:23
5 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:26
Critérium du Dauphiné overall after the sixth stage
1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 20:51:19
2 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 0:01:29
3 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:01
4 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates 0:02:30
5 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:02:39
