Primoz Roglic takes Criterium lead with mountain win on stage six

With his trademark late kick, the Slovenian unexpectedly eased away from Italian climber Giulio Ciccone and Russian Aleksandr Vlasov to also clinch the win and its bonus seconds.

A day after a mass fall in which both Evenepoel, 24, and veteran Roglic were both caught up the elder man proved he was relatively unaffected on the 174km run from Hauterives to Le Collet d'Allevard in southeastern France.

Under overcast skies with temperatures of 23 Celsius, the final climb was 11km at an 8.1 per cent gradient, which proved too much for the Belgian, who sat on the wet tarmac Thursday clutching his shoulder.

Roglic is the new leader with two mountain stages to go with Evenepoel at 19 seconds and American Visma rider Matteo Jorgensen third at 58 seconds.

Three weeks before the Tour de France starts this was a promising test for Roglic and Evenepoel who are billed as rivals to champion Jonas Vingegaard and Giro winner Tadej Pogacar.

Around 14 riders pulled out either last night or this morning following the mass fall with two also suffering respiratory problems, one confirmed as Covid.