Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) suffered a stroke of bad luck yesterday during the fifth stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné.

The stage included a summit finish on the final climb of Valmorel, a goal that is well suited to the characteristics of Cunego. Unfortunately, about 20km from the finish line, Cunego had a contact with an opponent, which cost him a broken gearbox. Although his bike was promptly replaced from the team car and he was escorted by two teammates, Serpa and Durasek, the Lampre rider soon found another obstacle on his run. His pursuit was in fact hampered by the crash of, among others, of Rodriguez (Katusha) and Rolland (Europcar) who were also cut out from the final. The crash took place in a stretch of narrow track that basically “The Little Veronese Prince” and his companions to stop, forcing Cunego to give up hope of returning into the lead group before the foot of the final climb.

The stage found its epilogue on the final ramps to Valmorel where the classification men battled it out. The first to try was Valverde (Movistar) but he was well controlled by Team Sky, then Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) tried to spoil the party of the English Team with 2km to go, but the reaction of Froome (Sky) was amazing and with an incredible burst of speed he grabbed the stage victory and the lead in the overall standings.