The Calm Before The Climbing — Stage 5 Offers One Final Opening Before Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Hits The Alps
After three days in which the breakaway has reigned supreme, stage 5 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes presents a familiar dilemma: chase or let it go. The 195.8km run from Saint-Chamond to the Parc des Oiseaux at Villars-les-Dombes is the longest remaining stage of the rebranded Dauphiné and, on paper, the last realistic chance for opportunists and sprinters before the race tilts decisively upward this weekend.
The profile is deceptive. Two fourth-category climbs inside the opening 15km — including the Côte de la Croix Blanche above Saint-Étienne — should spark a ferocious fight to make the move, before the road tips gently downhill and then flattens across the plains of the Ain towards the finish. With just 2,200 metres of climbing and a final kilometre at barely 0.2 per cent, this is as close to a sprinter's stage as the second half of this race offers.
That sets up a tactical tug-of-war. The breakaway has won every road stage so far, and the escape artists will fancy their chances again on a long day that punishes a half-hearted chase. Quinn Simmons, fresh from his stage 4 triumph, has shown the form to go again, while the likes of Anthon Charmig and the other aggressors of the week will be desperate to add their names to the winners' list before the mountains close the door.
The teams with fast finishers, by contrast, are running out of road. Dorian Godon of Netcompany Ineos, Michael Matthews of Jayco AlUla and Cofidis's Bryan Coquard have all been denied so far, and stage 5 may be their final invitation. Whether their squads are willing to bury themselves to control a 195km stage — knowing the Alps await — is the central question of the day.
In the general classification, Alex Baudin continues to defend the yellow jersey for EF Education-EasyPost, his 12-second buffer over Kévin Vauquelin intact after the sprinters' teams kept the bunch together on stage 4. Matteo Jorgenson sits fourth at 15 seconds, and none of the overall contenders will want to risk anything on a transitional stage with the decisive mountains so close.
Because that is the real story of stage 5: it is a holding pattern. The pre-race favourites — teenage prodigy Paul Seixas, UAE's Isaac del Toro, Jorgenson and the rest — have spent the week saving their matches. They will be content to let the breakaway and the sprinters fight over Thursday's spoils while they keep their powder dry for Friday, when the race turns into the high mountains and the contenders will finally have nowhere to hide.
For the neutral, that makes stage 5 a curious appetiser: a stage that could deliver a thrilling breakaway victory or a rare bunch sprint, yet one whose result is unlikely to alter the shape of the overall battle. The fireworks are coming — but first, one more day for the brave.