Christof Kern won the fifth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine this afternoon.
This may have been the longest stage of the race at 210km but the pace of this stage from Parc des Oiseaux via Villars-les-Dombes to Les Gets was extremely high.
With 95km to go, Radio Shack's Jason Cartney took off and got seven minutes clear of the peleton which contained race leader Bradley Wiggins.
With less than 20kms to go, Ireland's Nicholas Roche (pictured below) was involved in a bad crash. A badly shaken Roche remounted and was helped back by two riders from his AG2R team whilst Quick Step's Cappelle stayed face down on the ground.
The peleton continued to chase down McCartney and it was less than two minutes with 12kms to go.
Today's finish was at the end of a category 2 climb which started with 10.7km to go. McCartney was 1.13 in front as the peleton lead by BMC went up the Mont Les Gets.
A kilometre later, HTC Highroad's Tony Martin (pictured below) went past McCartney.
Then Leopard Trek's Swiss rider Oliver Zaugg made his move. He made a good break to get onto the less steep roads with five kilometres to go.
With a kilometre to go, Zaugg had been caught by Christof Kern who was eight seconds ahead. The Europcar rider was grimacing but timed his move perfectly to win the stage in a time of 5hr 5 mins and 3 seconds ahead of Sorensen and Voecker.
Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans (pictured below) came in sixth and seventh some nine seconds later.
Wiggins stays in yellow and blue by a minute and eleven seconds.
Stage 6 tomorrow is from Les Gets to Le Collet d’Allevard.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM