'I've just been getting better and better': Jake Stewart sprints to first WorldTour win on Critérium du Dauphiné stage five

Jake Stewart sailed to an accomplished sprint victory in Mâcon after a hilly day out and a desperate chase by the peloton at the end of the 183km outing.

It was a first WorldTour victory for the British Israel-Premier Tech rider, who went for a long sprint from 300 metres with a view to outwitting favourite Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek).

It worked: he comfortably held off sprint rivals Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers) and Søren Wærenskold (Uno-X Mobility) for second and third place, with Milan finishing fifth.

Remco Evenepoel retained the yellow jersey, despite crashing on a tricky 180-degree roundabout turn in the final run-in, which became dubbed 'the U-bend'. The Belgian rode into the finish with a scuffed jersey shoulder, apparently nursing a cut on his finger but otherwise apparently riding comfortably.

Beyond that there was little change in the GC top 10 – aside from seventh place Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) crashing out and those below him moving up a place. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) remain at 16sec and 38sec respectively.

This is turning out to be a rather successful season for Stewart – the first time he has scored two wins a season since starting his WorldTour career, with today representing his first win in a WorldTour race.

It came almost by chance, with Stewart taking over after his fast-finishing team-mate Pascal Ackermann crashed out. With the Coventry rider's contract at Israel-Premier Tech expiring this season, he wasn't slow to seize the opportunity.

"This one feels good," he said. "It's such a shame with Ackermann, who crashed today… I'm gutted he didn't get to contest the finish.

"It was handed over to me for the final bit. The boys backed me, the DSs backed me, the team backed me and did an awesome job, I'm just so happy I could finish it off for them.

He added: "I've just been getting better and better this season, I obviously took the win in [Four Days of] Dunkerque, and I was so close on the first stage, so to get redemption here, which was the last opportunity for us, is really good."

Describing the rough and tumble of the final kilometre, he said: "It got a bit boxy, but I managed to find my way through on the U-bend and picked up [Mathieu] Van Der Poel's wheel. From there I just needed to kick before Milan, get a bit of a rush on him and yeah, I managed to kick at 300 and hold on till the line."

How it happened

With the upcoming final three days consisting of an uphill finish followed by two mountain days, it was all-in for the fast finishers on this 183km stage between Saint-Priest and Mâcon.

There's little in the way of flat in this part of France, so there was the matter of a number of climbs to overcome on the way – a cat-four and three cat-threes.

With the last of these crested with 27km to go, there was, however, time for the bunch to connect with the day's inevitable breakaway, meaning the sprint finish was not unlikely.

That inevitable breakaway consisted of three riders – Enzo Leijnse (Picnic PostNL), Pierre Thierry (Arkea-B&B Hotels) and Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who set off almost immediately after the start and were joined after the climbing started by Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) and Thibault Guernalec (Arkea-B&B Hotels).

The peloton never gave them too much rope, and after the quintet was reduced to a trio on the final climb, the game looked up.

However, Labrosse, Thomas and Guernalec succeeded in holding on all the way to Mâcon, only swallowed up by the chasing bunch with around 1,700m to go.

Then, just as they had planned, the sprinters and their teams took over.

Results

Critérium du Dauphiné 2025 stage five, Saint-Priest > Mâcon, 183km

1. Jake Stewart (GBr) Israel-Premier Tech, 183km in 4:03:46
2. Axel Laurance (Fra) Ineos Grenadiers
3. Søren Wærenskjold (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
4. Laurence Pithie (NZl) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
5. Jonathan Milan (Ita) Lidl-Trek
6. Paul Penhöet (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
7. Emilien Jeannière (Fra) TotalEnergies
8. Fred Wright (GBr) Bahrain Victorious
9. Mathieu Van Der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck
10. Bastien Tronchon (Fra) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, all at same time

General Classification after stage five

1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, in 14:31:08
2. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4s
3. Iván Romeo (Spa) Movistar, +9s
4. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck, +14s
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +16s
6. Eddie Dunbar (Ire) Jayco-AlUla, +30s
7. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +38s
8. Matteo Jorgenson (Usa) Visma-Lease a Bike, +39s
9. Louis Barré (Fra) Intermarché - Wanty, 1:03
10. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale