Dauphiné Stage 5: Wout van Aert Roars Back, Now the Real Race Begins

Wout van Aert powered to a statement victory Thursday at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, answering questions about his form just days after being dropped in the team time trial and suffering a freak crash before the race even started.

The Belgian — racing this week in the rebranded Dauphiné for the first time since winning Paris-Roubaix in April — got his chance after breakaways spoiled the sprinters’ plans.

“Winning is always nice and especially in a big race like this,” Van Aert said. “It was a difficult start and it was even difficult mentally today. It was painful after the crash I had just before this race. I just had to try after the team chased the breakaway all day.”

A day after Visma-Lease a Bike failed to reel in the breakaway and watched Quinn Simmons celebrate victory, the Dutch squad left nothing to chance.

Thursday’s fifth stage was textbook breakaway vs. sprinters. After breaks winning the first three road stages, the peloton’s fast men wanted at least one chance before suffering through the Alps.

An early group dutifully pulled clear, but the stage went to script, and the catch was made with 12km to go and this Dauphiné was setting up its first bunch sprint.

Van Aert’s teammates delivered him perfectly to the line, and the Belgian finished the job for the 52nd road victory of his career.

“This is such a hard race with a lot of altitude meters so every day it was a question to control the bunch because there are not a lot of sprinter teams and 15 teams want to go into the break,” Van Aert said.

“I don’t know if my condition is much better than at the start of the race. I am happy with this and I have to keep working now.”

There was a scare going around the bunch with three riders — Matej Mohorič, Iván Romeo and Jefferson Cepeda (both Movistar) — pulling out of the race before the start with the flu.

The Alps are looming

Now the “real” race can begin. After five stages of preamble, the route turns into the Alps for what could be three of the most exciting days on the entire 2026 racing calendar.

Three summit finishes stacked up across the French Alps will decide not only who wins France’s second-biggest stage race, but who carries momentum into the Tour de France.

After five stages on a slow boil, this is what everyone’s been waiting for.

Things are tight at the top of the GC standings.

Strip out surprise leader Alex Baudin and only three seconds separate Kévin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley (both Netcompany-Ineos) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) atop the standings.

Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) sits 35 seconds back, while Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar) and Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG) are all within a minute.

Friday’s 182.3km sixth stage to Crest-Voland featuring nearly 3,000m of climbing. The final 21 kilometers are almost entirely uphill, with riders tackling the long Côte d’Héry-sur-Ugine before a steep final drag into Crest-Voland.

It might not decide the race, but it will definitely show who won’t be.

Dauphiné Stage 5 results