Phil Bauhaus (Team Sunweb) produced a great sprint finish to put his bigger-name rivals in the shade in Macon on stage 5 of the Criterium du Dauphine. The 22 year-old German followed the right wheels and then hit out to win by a bike length ahead of Arnaud Demare (FDJ) and Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie). Nacer Bouhanni and Alexander Kristoff were only fifth and sixth in the sprint.
Katusha once-again led the bunch through the final corners, but Kristoff was left wanting. Bauhaus didn’t have any teammates remaining going into the last stretch but showed wisdom beyond his experience as he surfed the wheels of other teams to put himself into the right place at the right time. The German latched onto the lead-out of Adrien Petit, which was meant for Bryan Coquard.
From there, he got himself onto the front as the sprinters rounded the final bend and there was no looking back from there. The win continues a purple patch for the Sunweb team, who is still on a high after Tom Dumoulin won the Giro d’Italia last month. They’ve also got youngster Sam Oomen in the lead of the young rider’s classification.
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“It feels really good (to have won). I felt that may shape was quite good a few weeks ago and I’m super happy that now everything worked out and that I could take the first victory,” said Bauhaus. “I saw on the second stage that my sprint was quite good and I felt from the beginning that my legs were good today. We chased with two guys and so I was confident. My legs were good enough to take the win home.
“A win for a sprinter is always good. I felt I was quite close in Arlanc the other day and so I got support from the team. For sure this is the biggest win of my career so far.”
Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) finished safely in the peloton and so retained the leader’s yellow jersey for another day. He will try to defend it during Friday’s first mountain stage over the terrible Mont du Chat climb to La Motte-Servolex but lead time trial winner Richie Porte (BMC) by just 27 seconds.
How it happened
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