Wout van Aert battles back from difficult start to claim Dauphiné victory

Wout Van Aert won stage 5 of the 2026 Critérium du Dauphiné after succeeding in a bunch sprint. The peloton worked hard to reel in a six-rider break, with the escapees caught with 12 kilometres to go.

Visma | Lease a Bike placed Wout van Aert perfectly to allow him to rocket to victory at a canter ahead of Hugo Hofstetter (NSN) and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) in third.

For the Belgian, the victory comes at the perfect time after a difficult opening three stages raised doubts about his Tour form, especially after he was dropped during the team time trial.

Stage 5 of the 2026 Critérium du Dauphiné from Saint-Chamond to Parc des Oiseaux began fairly uneventfully, with a breakaway of six riders able to escape quickly after just five kilometres. 

Inside the breakaway were: Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal Quick-Step), Hugo Houle (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Julen Arriolabengoa (Caja Rural), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla), Robbe Dhondt (Picnic PostNL) and Thibault Guernalec (TotalEnergies).

Riders from within the peloton had attempted to join the breakaway party, to no avail, with the break establishing a maximum advantage of over two minutes.

With a potential bunch sprint awaiting at the end of stage five, Visma | Lease a Bike and Cofidis worked behind in the peloton to control the six-man breakaway for their respective riders, Wout van Aert and Bryan Coquard, and attempted to stop a breakaway succeeding for a fourth time at the race.

The race situation, with breakaway pushing on ahead with an advantage around the 1:30 mark, continued throughout the middle portion of the stage and into the finale, but with the breakaway's advantage marginal.

Heading into the final 20 kilometres, the gap between the breakaway and the peloton was reduced to 20 seconds as further firepower came to the fore of the peloton with the likes of Tudor Pro Cycling and Lotto-Intermarche.

With 12 kilometres remaining, the breakaway was caught, and it was left to Visma and Cofidis to set up things for a sprint finish as they positioned their riders in what was a rather straightforward run-in to the finish.

Wout van Aert was perfectly positioned and turned that advantage into a sprint victory, claiming his second win of the season after his historic Paris-Roubaix triumph.