Critérium du Dauphiné: Zimmermann snatches stage 6 victory from the jaws of defeat

Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), who only had one professional win to his name before today, took the biggest win of his career so far on stage 6 of the Critérium du Dauphiné.

The German rider surged past his breakaway companion Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) in the final few hundred metres after the Frenchman had bridged across to him in the closing stages of the final climb to Crest-Voland.

Zimmermann formed part of the day’s early breakaway of 14 riders and had bridged across to the leading pair of Burgaudeau and Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) on the Col des Aravis after they had ridden away from the rest of the escapees on the earlier slopes.

The trio reached the summit of the climb with an advantage of around 35 seconds over the chasers behind and descended together to the foot of the penultimate climb of the Côte de Notre Dame de Bellecombe.

Having extended their advantage to over 40 seconds over the top of the climb, there was just a short descent and the final climb up to Crest-Voland before the finish. It was here that Zimmermann made his move, attacking out of the saddle and opening up a small gap over Burgaudeau and Castroviejo with 1.9km to go.

As the riders passed under the flamme rouge, it was a question of whether Zimmermann would be able to hold on, with Burgaudeau responding behind and dropping Castroviejo, who had already contributed a lot in the group beforehand.

Burgaudeau finally got across to Zimmermann with just under 500m to go and it appeared as though the German had nothing left in the tank, with the Frenchman going around the German and opening up his sprint to the line. However, the resilient Zimmermann hung on to Burgaudeau, coming around him in the final corner to take the victory ahead of the defeated TotalEnergies rider.

In the main group behind, there were a few minor skirmishes to take time, with the overall leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) putting in a couple of small attacks in the final kilometre in an attempt to extend his lead in the overall standings. However, the maillot jaune crossed the line inside the main group, 48 seconds down on Zimmermann, with no time gaps to any of his rivals for the general classification.

At the finish, a distraught Burgaudeau sat on the tarmac outside his team bus, looking somewhat bewildered as to how he had let the stage victory slip through his fingers, whilst a similarly shocked Zimmermann seemed to still be coming to terms with his victory in his post-race interview.