VILLARD-DE-LANS, France (AFP) — Reigning Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) stormed into the overall lead at the Critérium du Dauphiné with a blistering display of pace on Friday’s sixth stage.
Nibali, more than a minute and a half behind previous leader Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) at the start of the stage, pulled out all the stops to finish second behind Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and claim the race leader’s yellow jersey.
The 183-kilometer stage was raced in driving rain, but the 30-year-old Sicilian was undeterred as he attacked more than 110km from the finish in Villard-de-Lans.
He was part of a breakaway group that featured Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick-Step), Costa, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal).
By the time they were 40km from home, the quintet had opened up a three-and-a-half minute gap on the rest of the field and Nibali ended the day leapfrogging from 13th overall to take the lead.
Nibali is now 29 seconds ahead of stage winner Costa in the GC standings and 30 seconds ahead of Valverde. Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) is at 35 seconds back in fourth and van Garderen is fifth, 42 seconds adrift of Nibali.
Chris Froome (Sky) is further back in the overall standings, 1:21 behind Nibali.
Costa, 28, the 2013 road world champion, stole in at the last second to snatch victory from Nibali, who had appeared to have the stage well sewn up. Nibali was 5 seconds behind, while Valverde crossed the line 38 seconds back in third.
Saturday’s seventh and penultimate stage is a severe test of stamina with five major climbs along the 155km route from Montmelian to Saint-Gervais and an altitude finish.
The post Nibali storms into Dauphine overall lead as Costa wins stage 6 appeared first on VeloNews.com.
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