Critérium du Dauphiné stage 7: Mark Padun solos to stage win, Richie Porte pulls on leader’s jersey

Mark Padun (Bahrain-Victorious) rode everyone off his wheels to win atop La Plagne at the Critérium du Dauphiné on Saturday.

Richie Porte (Ineos Grenadiers) finished second on the stage and moved into the overall lead of the race with just one stage remaining.

Overnight leader Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Premier Tech) was distanced midway on the final climb to finish 10th on the stage, doing just enough to hang on to second overall.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) rounds out the GC podium in third, 29 seconds behind teammate Porte.

Miguel Ángel López (Movistar) finished third on the stage after his Movistar team had set the tempo through much of the final climb only to see the work come undone in a flurry of attacks through the final eight kilometers. López was able to move up the GC to 6th overall however.

https://twitter.com/dauphine/status/1401157135451447300

Padun’s victory the biggest of his career to date along with a GC win at the 2.1 Adriatica Ionica Race in 2019.

“It’s an incredible moment for me,” he said after the stage. “It’s my first WorldTour victory in one of the hardest stages of the Dauphiné. It was kind of unreal with everyone going so fast.

“All the last six days I felt so bad on the bicycle. Every day I thought it may be impossible to finish the race and today to arrive at the front – when I crossed the finish line it felt like the world championships”

Final climb brings the action

 

The long diesel climb to La Plagne was the scene of all the major action.

Ineos Grenadiers led the bunch up the lower slopes of the climb, pulling back the remainders of the break.

Movistar took over soon afterward as they looked to set up Enric Mas and López, but it was a blazing attack from Porte that proved decisive.

This is how @richie_porte kick-started the first big attack from the GC group 💥

He's with Mas and is between the solo leader Padun and the GC group which contains @GeraintThomas86 and @taogeoghegan pic.twitter.com/GKscZAv9sc

— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) June 5, 2021

The Tasmanian veteran attacked at 8.4km to go and Mas, Padun and Sepp Kuss responded.

When Mas and Porte sat back, Kuss and Padun motored away as a pair, and the relentless pace of the Bahrain Victorious rider saw Kuss dropped at 5km to go.

The Coloradan kept chasing but was unable to pull back Padun, and he was eventually swamped by the top GC contenders at 500 meters to go.

Davide Gaudu (Groupama FDJ) and then Ben O’Connor (Ag2r Citroen) started the final attacks in the GC pack with 4km remaining.

O’Connor bridged across to Mas and Porte before López and then Gaudu joined them. Porte cranked the pressure in the final kilometer, dropping all of those on his tail.

Porte kept piling on the pace through the final slopes of the ascent as he raced to second on the stage and took the leader’s jersey. López followed around a dozen seconds later for third.

Kuss finished sixth on the stage after his attacking move in the final.

Lawson Craddock climbs into mountains jersey

Lawson Craddock (EF Education-Nippo) was on the move for the third day in a row and came away rewarded. The Texan got into the day’s early break and hung tough through the opening climb of the stage, grabbing enough mountains points to take the KoM jersey heading into the final stage.

Once he bagged the points, Craddock dropped out of the break and back into the bunch in preparation for the extra tough stage Sunday.

Mountain mayhem to close the race

 

Any riders in the bunch that thought Saturday’s stage was tough had better not look at what’s to come Sunday.

A series of short, sharp climbs litter the opening of the short final day of racing with the fierce Col de Joux Plane and technical descent likely to dictate the winners and losers of the race.