![\"Wout](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2281081521.jpg\")
<\/p>\nVan Aert powers to a statement victory before three brutal Alpine stages decide the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes and the race’s next-generation showdown.<\/p>\n
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Van Aert wins stage 5 after a rough week in his first race since Paris-Roubaix. (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Updated June 11, 2026 09:55AM<\/p>\n
Wout van Aer<\/a>t powered to a statement victory Thursday at the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes<\/a>, answering questions about his form just days after being dropped in the team time trial and suffering a freak crash before the race even started.<\/p>\n The Belgian \u2014 racing this week in the rebranded Dauphin\u00e9 for the first time since winning Paris-Roubaix in April \u2014 got his chance after breakaways spoiled the sprinters\u2019 plans.<\/p>\n \u201cWinning is always nice and especially in a big race like this,\u201d Van Aert said. \u201cIt was a difficult start and it was even difficult mentally today. It was painful after the crash I had just before this race. I just had to try after the team chased the breakaway all day.\u201d<\/p>\n A day after Visma-Lease a Bike failed to reel in the breakaway and watched Quinn Simmons<\/a> celebrate victory, the Dutch squad left nothing to chance.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s fifth stage was textbook breakaway vs. sprinters. After breaks winning the first three road stages, the peloton\u2019s fast men wanted at least one chance before suffering through the Alps.<\/p>\n An early group dutifully pulled clear, but the stage went to script, and the catch was made with 12km to go and this Dauphin\u00e9 was setting up its first bunch sprint.<\/p>\n Van Aert\u2019s teammates delivered him perfectly to the line, and the Belgian finished the job for the 52nd road victory of his career.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is such a hard race with a lot of altitude meters so every day it was a question to control the bunch because there are not a lot of sprinter teams and 15 teams want to go into the break,\u201d Van Aert said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if my condition is much better than at the start of the race. I am happy with this and I have to keep working now.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a scare going around the bunch with three riders \u2014 Matej Mohori\u010d, Iv\u00e1n Romeo and Jefferson Cepeda (both Movistar) \u2014 pulling out of the race before the start with the flu.<\/p>\n The Alps are looming<\/p>\n Now the \u201creal\u201d race can begin. After five stages of preamble, the route turns into the Alps for what could be three of the most exciting days on the entire 2026 racing calendar.<\/p>\n Three summit finishes stacked up across the French Alps will decide not only who wins France\u2019s second-biggest stage race, but who carries momentum into the Tour de France.<\/p>\n After five stages on a slow boil, this is what everyone\u2019s been waiting for.<\/p>\n Things are tight at the top of the GC standings.<\/p>\n Strip out surprise leader Alex Baudin and only three seconds separate K\u00e9vin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley (both Netcompany-Ineos) and Matteo Jorgenson<\/a> (Visma-Lease a Bike) atop the standings.<\/p>\n