Dauphine stage 7: Poels takes summit finish

Wout Poels (Ineos) won a stormy stage 7 of the Dauphine Saturday, attacking late after a flurry of moves went on the final climb of the day. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) took second and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) came third.

Overnight race leader Adam Yates finished 10 seconds behind Poels, but it was not enough to prevent the yellow jersey from moving shoulders to Fuglsang. Poels’ victory moved him up to fifth overall.

The 134-kilometer trek through the mountains featured three Category 1 climbs before the 19km Hors Categorie climb to Les Sept Laux-Pipay. Tom Dumoulin opted not to start the stage to rest the knee injury he sustained in the Giro d’Italia, with an eye on a Tour de France start in a few weeks.

The stage started with the GC on a knife-edge, with a large collection of riders, including Fuglsang, within one minute of the podium spots.

A dangerous 22-man break formed after 30km, including Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) and stage 6 winner Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step). The break pulled over two minutes on the peloton, putting Lutsenko into the virtual race lead, forcing Michelton-Scott to start the chase. Five riders soon bridged across to form a 27-man break as the climbs started coming.

Alaphilippe attacked out of the bunch on the first climb of the day and was joined by Lennard Hofstede (Jumbo-Visma), and the pair soon forged a one-minute gap over the break, with the peloton three minutes behind them.

The pace was relentless for the first half of the race, and riders started dropping out of the breakaway as the second climb of the day – the Col du Granier – started.

Hofstede and Alaphillipe rejoined the breakaway on the third climb, with the group now made up of 22 riders, with the peloton two minutes back. Mitchelton-Scott continued to set the pace, as they had done all day, protecting Yates. As the third climb bit, the heavens opened and rain fell heavily and thunder rolled in.

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) and Michael Woods (EF Education First) attacked out of the breakaway halfway up the climb and held a 10 second lead over the peloton at the summit.

As the final climb to Pipay started, the much-reduced peloton was under two minutes back. Gianni Moscon (Ineos), Mikael Cherel (AG2R-La Mondiale), Magnus Cort (Astana), Rob Power (Sunweb), and Jesper Hansen (Cofidis) bridged from the break to join the lead pair of Woods and Lutesnko.

Behind them, Movistar took to the front for Nairo Quintana, and the remainder of the breakaway split into several groups.

With 11km to go, Quintana went off the front of the main group, and Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos) followed closely. The pair started coming past the remainders of the lead group, with just Woods and Lutsenko remaining out front. Kwiatkowski bridged to the leader pair, though Quintana fell back to the large chase group that was still controlled by Movistar, and contained Poels.

On 4km to go, the chasing group regained contact with Woods, Lutsenko, and Kwiatkowski, and the front of the race came together, with all the GC men still present. Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) and Stephen Kruiswijk (Jumbo-Visma) looked to be struggling and drifted off the back as Fuglsang and Buchmann went off the front, with just 2km remaining.

With Fuglsang only seven seconds behind Yates on GC at the start of the day, the Brit accelerated, bringing a small group with him.

Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Dan Martin (UAE-Team Emirates) were next to launch attacks, though it was Poels who managed to stay away from the chasers with his move and with 1km to go, caught Fuglsang and Buchmann. The Dutchman didn’t stop and powered straight past the pair on the flat final meters to the line, taking stage victory by one second.

With only one stage remaining, the GC is tight, with Yates eight seconds behind Fuglsang, and Tejay Van Garderen (EF Education First), a further 12 seconds back.  A further four riders sit less than a minute from the leader.