Froome retains Dauphine yellow as Voeckler wins stage

Team Sky’s Chris Froome retained the race leader’s yellow jersey after Friday’s sixth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine won by Thomas Voeckler.

The British rider remained 52 seconds ahead of Australian team-mate Richie Porte in the overall standings, with another Australian, Garmin’s Rohan Dennis, a further 2 seconds adrift.

Europcar’s Voeckler won a sprint finish at the end of the 143km stage raced in bright sunshine, coming through the line ahead of Spain’s Jesus Herrada, Belgian Kevin Seeldrayers and Russian Egor Silin, 46sec ahead of the peloton.

The quartet had kicked ahead of four other riders in a breakaway from the 30km mark, Voeckler’s stage win the first by a French rider on the Dauphine this year.

Saturday’s seventh and penultimate stage is a 187.5km ride between Pont-de-Claix and Superdevoluy, passing by Alpe d’Huez and including a descent of the Col de Sarenne, one of the stand-out stages of this summer’s Tour de France for which the Dauphine is a key warm-up.