Wout Poels takes Dauphine stage 7, Yates drops out of lead
Les Sept Laux, France, June 15, 2019 (AFP) – Dutch climb specialist Wout Poels of Team Ineos won the mountainous penultimate stage of the Criterium du Dauphine, which was raced in a downpour on Saturday.
Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang pulled on the overall race leader’s yellow jersey eight seconds ahead of the Briton Adam Yates after a rain-lashed 133km stage Saturday.
At the end of an almost 20km climb, Poels edged Bora man Emanuel Buchmann and Fuglsang in the toughest stage on the race. The final climb saw moves from numerous Tour de France contenders, including Nairo Quintana and Romain Bardet.
Poels was with Chris Froome on Wednesday when the four-time Tour de France winner broke his hip, leg, elbow and ribs in a horrific, freakish crash, leaving the Dutch rider in shock.
Fuglsang won this race in 2017 and if he can hold on to the lead over the dense, steep 113km route Sunday will mark himself out as one of the favourites for the Tour de France.
The race is still wide open with EF rider Tejay Van Garderen third overall at 20sec, Buchman fourth at 21, Poels fifth at 28.
Stage 7 results
1 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Ineos 4:01:34
2 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:00:01
3 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:10
5 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates
6 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
7 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:13
8 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) EF Education First 0:00:16
9 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:30
10 Bjorg Lambrecht (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:34
Overall standings
1 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 27:36:40
2 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:08
3 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) EF Education First 0:00:20
4 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:21
5 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Ineos 0:00:28
6 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:32
7 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:33
8 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:01:12
9 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:20
10 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:21
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