Criterium du Dauphine: Alaphilippe wins stage 6

14 June 2019 12:51
Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) managed to beat Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) in a close sprint to win stage 6 of the Critérium du Dauphiné to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne after being on the attack for 216km of the 229km stage deep into the Alps. Alessandro De Marchi (CCC Team), who was also in the three-rider break, finished third a few seconds behind after the trio attacked each other on the final climb of the day. The Frenchman was the local favourite to win but Mühlberger made Alaphilippe work for victory. Mühlberger attacked several times on the late Col de Beaune climb and then lead out the sprint with aggression, with only the photo-finish confirming that Alaphilippe had beaten him by a few inches. De Marchi finished a disappointed 22 seconds back after losing contact over the top of the climb after a chase and attack.ADVERTISEMENT The overall contenders let the trio gain over 13 minutes at one point during the six hours of racing, preferring to save their strength for the big mountain stages of the weekend. Wout Poels (Team Ineos) led the peloton home at 6:10 after the British team upped the pace on the final climb, shaking out double stage winner Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), who finished 15:06 back. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) finished safely in the peloton and so kept the race leader's yellow jersey going into the decisive Alpine weekend. Alaphilippe was keen to celebrate his tenth victory of the 2019 season and the 36th victory for Deceuninck-QuickStep. "I'm always hungry for success and every victory is important for me and the team," Alaphilippe said post-stage. Six hours in the saddle You can read more at Cyclingnews.com.read full article

Source: Cycling News