Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 5: Froome reels in Contador to win stage and take maillot jaune

Chris Froome of Team Sky underlined his Tour de France credentials today as he won Stage 5 of the 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné to take the race leader's maillot jaune. Froome had responded to an attack from Saxo-Tinkoff's Alberto Contador inside the closing kilometre and half of the 12.7km climb of the Hors Categorie Montée de Valmorel which brought today's stage to a close.

The Team Sky rider, aiming to succeed team mate Bradley Wiggins as winner of this race - the Tour de France champion has won the past two editions - caught and passed Contador with less than 500 metres remaining, just as the pair caught up with Matthew Bushche of RadioShack-Leopard.

The American was the last man standing from a 15-man break that had got away early on in the 139km from Grésy-sur-Aix, but was unable to match the pace being set by Froome and Contador as he desperately tried to hang on for the stage win.

Less than 2km from the summit of that final ascent, overnight leader Rohan Dennis of Garmin-Sharp was distanced by what was becoming an increasingly small GC group, and one that was missing Europcar's Pierre Rolland, who had been held up by a crash at the start of the climb, and Katusha's Joaquim Rodriguez, who had punctured.

Froome's strong performance in yesterday's individual time trial - he was third behind winner Tony Martin of Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Dennis - combined with his victory today means he now has a commanding position at the top of the GC with three stages remaining, 52 seconds ahead of Sky team mate Richie Porte, who was ninth today after doing a lot of the work to set up his team leader to challenge for the win.

Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 5 result  
  
1  FROOME Christopher   Sky Procycling                 03:28:39
2  CONTADOR Alberto     Team Saxo-Tinkoff                 00:04
3  BUSCHE Matthew       RadioShack - Leopard                ,,
4  VALVERDE Alejandro   Movistar Team                     00:10
5  ROGERS Michael       Team Saxo-Tinkoff                 00:12
6  MORENO Daniel        Katusha Team                        ,,
7  TAARAMäE Rein        Cofidis Solutions Crédits           ,,
8  NAVARRO Daniel       Cofidis Solutions Crédits         00:21
9  PORTE Richie         Sky Procycling                    00:24
10 FUGLSANG Jakob       Astana Pro Team                   00:29
11 DE CLERCQ Bart       Lotto Belisol Team                00:32
12 TEN DAM Laurens      Blanco Pro Cycling Team             ,,
13 HERNáNDEZ Jesús      Team Saxo-Tinkoff                 00:55
14 DENNIS Rohan         Garmin - Sharp                    00:59
15 KONIG Leopold        Team NetApp – Endura              01:10
16 SEELDRAEYERS Kevin   Astana Pro Team                   01:19
17 CLEMENT Stef         Blanco Pro Cycling Team           01:23
18 SANCHEZ Samuel       Euskaltel - Euskadi               01:31
19 KWIATKOWSKI Michal   Omega Pharma - Quick-Step         01:37
20 ZUBELDIA Haimar      RadioShack - Leopard                ,,
  
Overall Standings after Stage 5  
  
1  FROOME Christopher   Sky Procycling                 16:08:44
2  PORTE Richie         Sky Procycling                    00:52
3  DENNIS Rohan         Garmin - Sharp                    00:54
4  ROGERS Michael       Team Saxo-Tinkoff                 01:37
5  MORENO Daniel        Katusha Team                      01:47
6  NAVARRO Daniel       Cofidis Solutions Crédits         01:49
7  TAARAMäE Rein        Cofidis Solutions Crédits         01:52
8  KWIATKOWSKI Michal   Omega Pharma - Quick-Step         01:58
9  KONIG Leopold Team   NetApp – Endura                   02:16
10 FUGLSANG Jakob       Astana Pro Team                   02:20