Youngster Sebastien Reichenbach has been climbing excellently in the Criterium du Dauphiné and is going into the final weekend sitting just outside the top 10. The young Swiss was happy to get easily through today's stage on a day when his teammate Aleksejs Saramotins fought for a stage win in the breakaway.

On the eve of a decisive weekend in the Alps, the sixth stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré found a happy winner in Jan Bakelants (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), who grabbed the victory after having been part of break for over 100 kilometers.  Despite crashing close to the finish of the stage, Chris Froome (Sky) retained his yellow jersey.
 
IAM Cycling, meanwhile, had another day of contrasts.  With a recurrent pain in his right knee, Stefan Denifl was unable to follow the pace of the peloton.  After forty kilometers, the Austrian dismounted so as not to aggravate the pain anymore and risk his upcoming races. 

At the same time, Aleksejs Saramotins managed to get into the main break of the day, along with 15 other riders, but could not quite keep the necessary pace to go for the win.  In the end he finished 16th, 1’14” behind the winner. 

“I really suffered during the entire stage.  The heat wears you down, and I am still not used to it after all the cold and rain we raced in this spring.  However, the break worked very well together, but I was not able to follow when Bakelants, Westra and the others accelerated.  I was content to finish at my own pace, especially since we have a big weekend of work ahead helping our leader Sébastien Reichenbach.”
 
For his part, the 25 year old Reichenbach did not complain about having a “quiet day”, especially since the average speed was more than 44km/h. 

“I did not suffer more than I needed to.  It was the easiest stage and we even cut the chase short after Froome crashed.  That was actually good, considering the tough stages that we still face on Saturday and Sunday which end at Finhaut-Emosson and then Courchevel.”