Etixx - Quick-Step rider Tony Martin was part of a five-rider breakaway that went on to decide 183km Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 6, and David De la Cruz finished 18th (+2'55"), despite the peloton being split into pieces along the parcours.
Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) won the stage after catching a solo Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) with a few hundred meters to go in the stage. They were part of the breakaway that included Martin, as well as Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal). It became clear that the breakaway would decide the stage when the gap remained at about 3 minutes going into the final 20 kilometers. Martin was distanced by his breakmates with 21.5km left to race.
The other four riders remained together until Gallopin launched with a little more than 3km remaining. Nibali bridged to Gallopin briefly before going ahead alone. Only Costa could chase Nibali down.
Meanwhile, the peloton behind those riders split into bits as the tempo remained high, and riders continued to try and attack in the final kilometers. Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team), seeing his possession of the yellow jersey in jeopardy, was one of those riders. But the group was unable to reduce the gap enough to prevent Nibali from taking over the race lead.
The race only gets more difficult tomorrow. Etixx - Quick-Step looks next to the Queen Stage on Saturday. as the 155km parcours includes five Category 1 ascents and one of 3rd category.
Julian Alaphilippe withdrew from the race, in addition to Maxime Bouet, and Martin Velits.
"In the last days I didn't really recover well because I had some nights where I didn't sleep well," Alaphilippe said. "So I've been really suffering during the stages. I decided with the team to stop and take a few days of rest instead of digging a deeper hole of fatigue."