Jake Stewart wins stage 5 of Critérium du Dauphiné as Remco Evenepoel crashes in final kilometre

Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech) won stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné after launching an early and powerful sprint in Mâcon that nobody was able to match. Axel Laurance (INEOS Grenadiers) finished seconds and Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) third. It marks the fourth professional victory of the British rider’s career and the finest to date. It’s an even more impressive performance considering that the team’s sprinter, Pascal Ackermann, unfortunately crashed out earlier in the stage.

Race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) came down in a crash shortly after the flamme rouge, but the Belgian was quickly up and crossed the line with his teammates looking relatively unharmed. Evenepoel will receive the same time as everyone else and thus there are no changes in the general classification standings.

Stage 5 presented a rare opportunity for the sprinters to shine at the Dauphiné, although there were no guarantees of a bunch sprint in Mâcon with another hilly and very warm day to deal with beforehand. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) was the outstanding favourite ahead of a potential sprint, having claimed stage 2 in convincing fashion, but Milan was unable to turn this into fruition after another very warm and fast day of racing at the Dauphiné. Instead, it was Jake Stewart who claimed the first WorldTour victory of his career in impressive fashion.

"The boys backed me, the DS backed me, and the team backed me," Stewart said afterwards. "They did an awesome job, I am just so happy I can finish it off for them."

The initial breakaway formed early, with Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), and Enzo Leijnse (Picnic PostNL) forging clear, though their gap never extended further than a couple of minutes.

The French duo of Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) and Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) later bridged across to the front three, and Thomas proceeded to win the first mountain sprint of the stage on the Côte de Saint-Armour. Thomas and Labrosse would each win two mountain sprints and finish runner-up in the other.

The group almost swelled further in size as Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar), Alex Baudin, Tobias Foss, and Tobias Bayer tried to bridge, but this attempt proved unsuccessful. One rider who would have been hoping for a strong stage result in a potential sprint finish was Pascal Ackermann, but unfortunately, the German suffered a crash and had to abandon the Dauphiné.

Uno-X Mobility and Alpecin-Deceuninck pushed the pace on the final climb, the Côte des Quatre Vents, in an attempt to distance Milan. The Italian sprinter was briefly dropped, but due to his positioning at the bottom of the climb, he was able to have some sliding room and wasn’t distanced by much and quickly returned to the bunch with the help of his Lidl-Trek teammates.

There was a nasty crash with under 7 kilometres to go, which saw Louis Rouland (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) hit the ground, as the breakaway still dangled out in front of the peloton. The catch was made very late, with only 2km remaining, as things were set for a bunch sprint.

Lidl-Trek left it late, not having nearly as much control over proceedings for the final few kilometres until just under the flamme rouge, as a familiar sight appeared. A Lidl-Trek lead-out appeared at the front primed for Milan to launch his sprint. However, Jake Stewart mustn't have read the Lidl-Trek script, as the British rider launched a very early sprint and completely got the jump on Milan. The sprint was about more than just the surprise element, as Stewart was clearly the strongest, as nobody was able to come close to the British rider, who claimed his first WorldTour victory. Laurance and Wærenskjold rounded out the stage podium, while Milan took fifth.

Remco Evenepoel came down in a crash inside the final kilometre, but the race leader was quickly on his feet and able to finish the stage, and he showed no ill effects as he smiled from the podium after the stage. With the crash inside the safety zone, Evenepoel finished on the same time as the rest of the GC contenders, and he still leads the Dauphiné by four seconds over Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), 16 seconds over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), and 38 seconds over Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) ahead of three major Alpine stages.