Alaphilippe sprints to victory, Moscon takes the lead
June 7 th 2018 - 16:30
Following a long lasting breakaway of Dario Cataldo who was caught only 300 metres before the line, Julian Alaphilippe won an uphill sprint against Dan Martin in Lans-en-Vercors. Gianni Moscon took over from Michal Kwiatkowski in the lead of the overall ranking but Team Sky retained the first three positions.
144 riders started stage 4 at Chazey-sur-Ain at 11.48. Four non-starters: Manuele Mori (UAE Team Emirates), Floris De Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo), Roy Curvers and Johannes Fröhlinger (Sunweb). The fast pace of the peloton prevented any attack from generating a breakaway for one and half hours. 52.5km were covered in the first hour of racing. 33 riders eventually managed to go clear at km 55. It included yellow-blue jersey Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky), green jersey Daryl Impey and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Damiano Caruso (BMC), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Marc Soler (Movistar) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha). AG2R-La Mondiale brought them back at km 62.
Eight in the lead before the col du Mont Noir
Dario Cataldo (Astana), Lukas Pöstleberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jens Keukeleire (Lotto-Soudal) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) rode away at km 77. They were firstly rejoined by Odd Christian Eiking (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Arnaud Courteille (Vital Concept), and secondly by Simon Clarke (Education First) and Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept) to form a front group of eight riders at km 82. This time, the peloton didn’t react. Their advantage at km 100 was 4’15’’. It reached 5’10’’ at km 117, after which AG2R-La Mondiale upped the tempo at the head of the peloton. Eiking attacked from the front group 11km before the summit of the Mont Noir, the first hors-category climb of the 70th Criterium du Dauphiné. Cataldo countered him to crest in first position and continue solo.
Cataldo caught with 300 metres to go
With 20km to go, Cataldo was two minutes ahead of his former breakaway companions and three half minutes ahead of the peloton led by Team Sky under the pouring rain. As he threatened the yellow-blue jersey, his former team chased him hard and caught all the riders in between with 15km to go. The Italian still had 2’10’’ lead with 10km to go. Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) attacked from the peloton but got reeled in with 4km to go. Team Sky set a steady pace to reduce the gap to Cataldo who was swallowed with only 300 metres remaining as Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) countered a late attack by Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert). Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step) outsprinted the Italian while Kwiatkowski lost contact in the final stretch and therefore abandoned the yellow-blue jersey to his young team-mate Gianni Moscon.