13th June – Stage 6: Valserhône – Combloux
A short and sharp 126 kilometre route saw the peloton tackle the climbs at the Dauphiné, with a summit finish on Combloux. It was a fast start to the day with lots of attacks in the early period of the stage, before the elastic finally snapped and an eight rider group that featured Romain Bardet went clear.
They quickly built up a two minute advantage but that’s where the gap peaked and it was clear that the main GC teams wanted to control the gap to go for the stage win. On the penultimate climb Bardet’s breakaway had its advantage cut to only 50 seconds so the Team Picnic PostNL rider sat up, to conserve as much energy as possible for the weekend’s stages. Unfortunately, Max Poole stepped off the bike during the stage; still feeling the effects of his crash in the TT.
Team Picnic PostNL coach Phil West explained: “The way we rode and what we tried to create was good and we looked for our opportunities and had Romain in the break, which was nice. I’m happy with the way we rode in the stage. We made a smart decision later in the day when it was clear it would be a GC battle for the win, to sit up and save energy for the weekend, where we’re going to try and be in the fight each day. It’s a shame that Max had to stop the race. Since the TT crash he’s been nursing a knee injury and we hoped that it would improve so he could come good for the weekend, but each day it went the other way a bit. We decided that he should stop, so that he can recover in a good way and prepare for the next goals later in the year.”
