Critérium du Dauphiné (st. 5)
Dayer Quintana (31st) takes big effort into break before Vaujany as final climb takes Jesús Herrada (15th) momentarily out of Critérium du Dauphiné GC top-ten. Saturday's stage set to decide overall result; Chris Froome (SKY) now in yellow. Rubén Fernández abandons after crash into neutral zone
Stage five of the Critérium du Dauphiné, 140km between La Ravoire and Vaujany, started with bad news for the Movistar Team as Rubén Fernández was forced to abandon following a crash before the 'départ réel'. Initially hurt in his shoulder, further checkups in a medical center nearby following his crash revealed just a huge blow, yet with no broken bones, which will require some rest at the team hotel before he heads back home.
Far from backing off, the squad directed by José Luis Arrieta and José Luis Laguía tried to always keep the front, initially with Antonio Pedrero into a dangerous, 25-man attempt at the Col du Barrioz (Cat-1), then -once caught by an insistant Tinkoff train- with Colombian Dayer Quintana, who joined a quartet wich reached the foot of Vaujany (Cat-2), the day's decisive col, with a handful of seconds.
4km from the end, over slopes ramping up to 12%, the group of favourites caught Quintana as the GC battle exploded. Froome (SKY) and Porte (BMC) put an immense pace into the favourites' group to make race leader Contador (TNK) crack, the Spaniard always on Daniel Martin's (EQS) wheel. Victory at the top of Vaujany was for Froome, new yellow jersey, as Jesús Herrada slips back to 15th, 1'56" from the Briton, with Dani Moreno and Dayer Quintana around the top-30.
The Queen stage on French soil comes tomorrow (La Rochette – Méribel, 141km), with five categorized climbs including the famous Col de la Madeleine (HC) halfway through the course. In turn, the Tour de Suisse will take its curtain up -with Winner Anacona, Jorge Arcas, Jonathan Castroviejo, Alex Dowsett, Gorka Izagirre, Ion Izagirre, Juanjo Lobato and Jasha Sütterlin in for the Movistar Team- with a lumpy, 6.4km prologue in Baar before some sprinter stages in the upcoming days.