MOVISTAR RIDER NAIRO Quintana prevailed in stage six of the Criterium de Dauphine, as Bradley Wiggins held onto the leader’s yellow jersey.
Quintana completed the 166km trek from Saint-Alban-Leysse to Morzine in a time of four hours 46 minutes and 12 seconds, 16 seconds ahead of Australian (BMC) and 24 seconds ahead of Katusha’s Daniel Moreno.
Moreno headed the chasing pack of which Wiggins (Sky) was a part, along with Pieter Weening (GreenEDGE), Chris Froome (Sky), Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar), Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto Belisol), Michael Rogers (Sky) and Haimar Zubeldia (RadioShack-Nissan), who completed the top 10.
A number of riders failed to finish the stage, with RadioShack Nissan’s Andy Schleck the biggest name when he was forced to pull out at the 65km mark due to injuries he sustained in the stage four time trial.
Germany’s Tony Martin, who began Saturday’s stage in second place overall, 38 seconds behind Wiggins, fell well off the pace on the tough final climb and he finished the day in 14th position, 4:15 behind the Briton.
That allowed Australians Rogers and Evans to move into second and third place respectively.
Rogers is 1:20 behind Wiggins, with Evans a further 16 seconds adrift heading into Sunday’s final stage – a 126km ride from Morzine to Chatel.
