Thomas Voeckler’s tongue (Europcar) won stage 6 of the Dauphine in Grenoble, with the French showman delivering a clever sprint from a typically opportunistic breakaway.
Ultimately, the stage had negligible impact on the overall standings, with Chris Froome (Sky) maintaining his titanium grip on the race lead, and no changes to the top five.
Voeckler, Jose Herrada Lopez (Movistar), Kevin Seeldrayers (Astana), and Egor Silin (Astana) were the survivors of the day’s escape, with the rubber-faced Frenchman embarrassing the two Astana men with a muscular sprint to pinch the win.
Ultimately the peloton lacked the firepower or coherence to bring the race back together in time, with Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) beating points classification leader Gianni Meersman (OPQS) for fifth place in the consolation sprint.
Australia’s Richie Porte (Sky), Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) and Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) remain in the next three positions, but it would take a disaster for Froome to cough up the lead from here.
When your closest rival is a team-mate, you’ve demonstrated form that is head and shoulders ahead of your other rivals and you’re a minute clear, you don’t have too much to worry about, even with a visit to the fabled Alpe d’Huez looming on the horizon.
Of course, many were saying the same thing before the penultimate stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, in which Froome cracked and handed the race lead to Vincenzo Nibali.
But that race had a combination of horrendous weather and ridiculous gradients, which is unlikely to be repeated in the Dauphine.
This wasn’t a day that challenged Froome. In fact it was a day of detente for the GC contenders, another day of Sky controlling the race in numbers, with no major intrigues as the breakaway was able to stay clear for the victory.
French favourite Thomas Voeckler managed to grimace and gurn his way to, surprisingly, his first stage win in the Dauphine.
A man who enjoys spending time in front of the cameras, particularly on French soil, Voeckler outfoxed his companions to win by a bike length to Herrada.
This was a timely return to form after a disastrous early season for Voeckler, who suffered a broken collarbone in the Amstel Gold Race after showing reasonable form in the early classics.
Voeckler is a somewhat divisive figure among cycling fans, with his theatrical facial expressions (some of us have adopted the Twitter hashtag #voecklersexface), his bobbing head, his constant out of the saddle efforts, pouring bottles of water over his head, berating his breakaway companions, and generally getting his face on the TV cameras.
He looks like a man with an electric saddle, twitching and convulsing, projecting an appearance of suffering most forcefully when he feels good.
You can’t deny that his antics are successful: his team’s sponsors certainly get their fair share of exposure from him. He also has an uncanny knack of winning stages and jerseys.
Stage 6 was classified as a medium mountain stage, but the day’s major climb was the category 1 Col du Barioz, which was cleared with more than 60km remaining in the day.
From that point on, the stage profile could be described as ‘rolling’, with the last 20km or so mostly downhill.
In other words, a great opportunity for a breakaway artist.
An eight-man group was allowed to go clear, but was never allowed more than three minutes lead, with some of the sprinter’s team hoping to collect a last stage win before the race heads for its final two days in the mountains.
Fortunately for the breakaway, the effort of chasing over the lumpy terrain was enough to send a few enough of the sprinters into difficulty, whittling down the number of teams interested in chasing hard.
OPQS chased hard for Meersman, but when Tony Martin pulled off the front, exhausted, it was all too late for the chasers, and the impetus went out of the pursuit.
Boasson Hagen and Meersman were the best of the sprinters who survived to the finish, with the Norwegian coming out on top for the second time this week.
It’s a welcome return to form for Boasson Hagen, whose form has been lacklustre for the last two seasons after bursting to prominence in 2011.
The Dauphine now moves to its most interesting phase: the final two days have the most challenging climbs. If you think the Dauphine is a bellwether for the Tour de France, stages 7 and 8 should be compulsory viewing.
Froome’s lead seems commanding, but the psychological games on the slopes of Alpe d’Huez will be worth watching closely.
So far Froome has easily responded to attacks from Contador and Valverde, but I’m sure that won’t stop them trying it on again.
Apart from the pre-Tour shenanigans, with three Australian riders in the top four, there is plenty to enjoy.
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