Following yesterday’s neutralized stage 5, Criterium du Dauphiné 2024 continued Friday with the long-anticipated stage 6 from Hauterives to Le Collet d’Allevard. The stage route was mountainous, and the stage culminated with a finish on Le Collet d’Allevard – a grueling climb which was categorized as Hors Categorie (outside category). 

The 174.1-kilometer stage 6 started with the Cote de La Cote-Saint-André (1.9 km; 6.5%) shortly after the stage start. A false-flat section then followed, before the second half of the stage challenged the riders to duels on the Category Two Col du Granier (8.9 km; 5.5%) and Le Collet d’Allevard (8.2 km; 8.5%), which included climbing sections of up to 10.8 percent. 

The stage was expected to have a decisive influence on the General Classification in the first of this season’s two major lead-up races to the Tour de France (the other being the Tour de Suisse 2024).

The action in the stage commenced early as a group of six riders broke away from the main peloton. The sextet featured former race leader Magnus Cort (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team), Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ), Thibault Guernalec (Arkea – B&B Hotels), Arjen Livyns (Lotto-Dstny), Mason Hollyman (Team PremierTech), and Alessandro Fancellu (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team). The group built a lead of six minutes before they approached the category two Col du Granier with sixty-five kilometers left.

The front group entered the Col du Granier climb (Category Two; 8.9 km; 5.5%) with 53 kilometers left of the stage. At this point the front group had an advantage of approximately five minutes over the main peloton, which was headed by the Soudal-QuickStep and Bora-Hansgrohe teams.

Hollyman and Guernalec crashed on the technically challenging descent from the Col du Granier with 42 kilometers left. The remaining four riders in the front group carried on relentlessly. The two unfortunate riders returned to their bikes. Remarkably, the front quartet was still enjoying a lead of almost four minutes with just approximately thirty kilometers left. Apparently, the General Classification favorites were not as active and focused as expected in this mountain stage following yesterday’s havoc on the roads of France.

The motorcycles, race cars and front group took a wrong turn on the fast descent and had to turn around. What an embarrassment for the otherwise so professional race organizer. The front group thereby lost valuable time and possibly the chance of fighting for a stage win.

The front group entered the final climb of the day – the Hors Categorie Le Collet d’Allevard – with a lead of approximately 01:45 minutes. The steep incline percentages immediately caused riders to be dropped. Gregoire carried on solo in front, while Cort initiated a chase.

In the main peloton teams such as Lidl-Trek, Soudal-QuickStep, and Bora-Hansgrohe were setting a fast pace.

Team Visma-Lease a Bike’s American Sepp Kuss was surprisingly dropped from the peloton, despite his great climbing skills. The team had already lost Steven Kruijswijk and Dylan van Baarle in crashes yesterday and the outlook for their Tour de France team roster was looking bleak – especially because defending Tour de France Champion Jonas Vingegaard was also recovering from collarbone and rib fractures. Kuss had better be well.

With six kilometers left Gregoire was still solo at the front, while Denmark’s Cort was chasing seven seconds behind the Frenchman. The main peloton was 55 seconds behind.

Cort cracked with five kilometers left and waited for the chasers. Gregoire carried on further up the road.

Laurens de Plus (Ineos-Grenadiers) attacked solo from the main peloton. While American Neilson Powless (Team EF Education-EasyPost) was disappointingly in trouble, Jakob Fuglsang (Team PremierTech) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) were dropped from the main peloton. 

De Plus caught front man Gregoire with four kilometers remaining. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) caught De Plus.

Giulio Ciccone (Team Lidl-Trek), Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe), Matteo Jorgenson (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), and Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) also attacked from the main peloton, hoping to bridge the gap to De Plus and Vlasov. Surprisingly, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) did not respond. The rider in the yellow jersey was having a bad day in the saddle.

The front groups merged and Vlasov and Roglic attacked with approximately two kilometers left. De Plus chose to wait for Ineos-Grenadiers teammate Rodriguez. Roglic, Vlasov and Ciccone were now forming the front trio. 1.2 kilometers remained of today’s stage 6 of Criterium du Dauphine 2024.

Evenepoel attacked from behind in the final kilometer hoping to reduce the time damage suffered in the General Classification after today’s stage.

Roglic left Ciccone behind in the final meters and soloed across the finish line. Primoz Roglic wins the stage ahead of Giulio Ciccone and Alexandr Vlasov. Roglic is the new race leader.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for additional race coverage from Criterium du Dauphiné 2024.

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