Critérium du Dauphiné

The fifth day of the Critérium du Dauphiné got underway with a special moment at the start in Saint-Priest, as Servais Knaven – the man who delivered our first ever victory 22 years ago – met with Remco Evenepoel for a short chat, twenty-four hours after the latter claimed Soudal Quick-Step’s 1000th win at the end of a time trial that brought the race’s iconic yellow jersey onto his shoulders.

It should have been a rather calm day for the Belgian and his teammates, but it turned out to be completely different, when with 115 kilometers to go, Louis Vervaeke was involved in a crash and had to say goodbye to the race due to a broken collarbone. The rest of the Soudal Quick-Step boys made sure of keeping Evenepoel in a good position as the peloton made its way to Mâcon, where the stage was supposed to finish.

In the closing kilometer, the sprinters moved up through the peloton and the fight for positioning led to another crash, this time the yellow jersey being among those who hit the deck. Fortunately, the leader of the race got back up immediately, and accompanied by Pascal Eenkhoorn, came home a few minutes later, getting the same time as winner Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech).

After the podium ceremony, Remco talked about the incident: “I really don’t know what happened, but on the bright side, it looks like there’s just a few bruises and nothing really serious. We stayed at the front the entire stage to honour the yellow jersey but also to make sure we would be out of trouble. It was a good day to recover a bit from yesterday’s effort, but it’s a pity that we’ve lost Louis, to whom we all wish a fast recovery. On Friday, the first mountain test of the race awaits and we’ll see what we can do there.”

Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images

                        ©Wout Beel