Critérium du Dauphiné: Christophe Laporte survives chaotic finish to win stage 3

Christope Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) came through a chaotic finale to take his second win of the Critérium du Dauphiné on stage 3. The race leader, and winner of stage 1, opened his sprint with around 150m to go and powered to the line ahead of pure sprinters Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla).

Both Bennett and Groenewegen were later relegated for deviating from their lines, a result that promoted Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) and Hugo Hofstetter (Team Arkéa) to second and third respectively.

Laporte, who came into the stage on the same time as stage 2 winner Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal QuickStep), also picked up the intermediate sprint to extend his overall lead to 11 seconds over the former double world champion.

A series of late crashes held up several riders before the final sprint with Bennett seemingly the best placed sprinter as the peloton rounded the final corner. The Irishman had a near-perfect leadout from his team as he raced through the last 500m, but he created space for Laporte through the centre of the road when he veered right in order to close the door on Groenewegen. That manoeuvre effectively ended the Jayco rider’s effort, with the Dutchman forced to slow and deviate his line. With Groenewegen out of the picture, and Bennett surprisingly running out of steam, it was Laporte who charged through the middle of the road to take his second win in three days.

Laporte had been glued to Groenewegen’s rear wheel in the final 300m but the yellow jersey wisely decided to hold his line when the Dutch rider attempted to jump right and into Bennett’s slipstream. With Matevž Govekar (Bahrain Victorious) positioned on Bennnet’s left, Groenewegen was effectively boxed in once the Irishman closed in on the barriers, giving Laporte the cleanest of paths to the finish line. As Groenewegen crossed the line he gesticulated at Bennett for the Irish rider’s late change in line, but the race commissaires saw fit to relegate both riders for deviating. In the end it made no difference for a jubilant rider in yellow.

“I was looking forward to doing the sprint. You wouldn’t have thought that I was fast enough to beat the likes of Sam Bennett and Dylan Groenewegen, but then again Groenewegen was blocked on one side and I was able to take the other. It was unexpected but I’m very happy. It’s a very nice victory,” Laporte said before making his way to the podium.

“We were protecting Jonas Vingegaard, so it wasn’t really a leadout but I like it like that. We were all around Jonas and then I could benefit from that work. I could just follow the quick guys and then I was blocked with around 500m to go and I thought that it was finished but then it opened up and I was able to finish. It was a good day.”Laporte’s win on the road to Le Coteau provided another welcome boost for Jumbo-Visma with the race heading into the decisive stage 4 time trial on Wednesday.

The majority of stage 3 was raced without incident, with Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) the only rider to build up a gap on the peloton. The Frenchman’s time off the front was cut short with 110km to go, such was the lack of appetite for a major breakaway to form. A public demonstration, and a brief neutralisation, halted proceedings with around 100km to go before Bora-Hansgrohe and Jayco-AIUIa set about tapping out a respectable pace at the front of the field.

A major crash towards the back of the field held up over a dozen riders, including Alaphilippe, and with 48km to go with veteran Andrey Zeits (Astana Qazaqstan) was forced to abandon due to his injuries. After crossing the Loire another fall hampered a handful of riders and once over the short climb of the Côte de Pinay, the sprinters’ teams took full control of the stage. With 1.6km to go a crash took down James Shaw (EF Education EasyPost), before another fall with 1km remaining eliminated Lawson Craddock from Groenewegen’s supporting cast. 

Even when faced with faster sprinters Laporte made it look easy as he rounded out his fourth win of an already stellar season.