Dunbar stays sixth as Pogacar solos into Dauphine GC lead
TADEJ POGACAR SOLOED to victory in the sixth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine on Friday to reclaim the yellow jersey and put himself firmly in contention for overall victory.
In the first of three mountain stages, contested under a baking sun, Cork's Eddie Dunbar dug deep to cross the line in 13th place, and hang on to sixth place in the general classification.
With this 97th victory of his career, Pogacar, who cruised in 1:01 ahead of Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, becomes the active rider with the joint-most victories — on a par with French sprinter Arnaud Demare.
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Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who was leading the overall classification, finished fifth at 1:50.
Pogacar now has a 43-second lead over Vingegaard, 54 seconds over German Florian Lipowitz and 1:22 over Evenepoel.
The world champion put in an acceleration with 7km to go that left everyone in his wake. Only Vingegaard managed to hang on to his wheel for a few metres before settling back, unable to keep up with his rival.
It was an important marker for Pogacar to put down to his leading Tour de France rivals ahead of his title defence following the 26-year-old's sub-par showing in Wednesday's time-trial at the Dauphine.
Of the other Irish riders, Ben Healy finished the day in 34th place while Archie Ryan was 64th, dropping six places to 45th in the GC.
Saturday's queen stage is a mountainous 132km run from Grand-Aigueblanche to Valmeinier 1800.
– © AFP 2025
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