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\n<\/picture><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>The locals were only vaguely interested in the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes leader Alex Baudin passing by <\/span>(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAfter the 60km fight to get up the road on Wednesday’s stage at the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes, the breakaway formation on stage 5 was much simpler, with the only two categorised climbs of the stage both coming in the opening 10km.<\/p>\n
Using the C\u00f4te de la Croix Blanche and Col de la Gachet to their advantage was a six-rider group which emerged at the front of the race with 192km to race: Pepijn Reijnderink (Soudal-QuickStep), Thibault Guernalec (TotalEnergies), Julen Arriola-Bengoa (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla), Hugo Houle (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Robbe Dhondt (Picnic PostNL).<\/p>\n
They were allowed to extend their lead past two minutes, with the peloton happy with the configuration. Dhondt was the best-placed on GC, but posed no threat to Baudin’s lead, having started Thursday’s stage 15:00 down.<\/p>\n
Although the rest of the stage featured no more categorised climbs, there were still plenty of up and down roads to tackle on the road to the bird park in Villars-les-Dombes, a site of one of Mark Cavendish’s 35 Tour de France stage wins 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
With fewer riders in front, the job of controlling should’ve been simpler than it was on stage 4, Visma-Lease a Bike, Cofidis, Bahrain Victorious and race leaders EF all among those who committed a rider near the front of the peloton.<\/p>\n
While the break collaborated well together, the peloton was working hard to ensure their lead never got too large, likely fearing a repeat of yesterday’s failed chase, and after the first three road stages all ended in success for the breakaway.<\/p>\n\n