Wout van Aert doubles up with thrilling sprint victory in stage five of Criterium du Dauphine

Wout van Aert prevailed in a thrilling bunch sprint to win his second straight stage of the Criterium du Dauphine.

The Belgian claimed his first World Tour win on Wednesday with a surprise time trial victory, and the Team Jumbo-Visma rider followed that up with another remarkable display on Thursday.

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Van Aert crossed the line ahead of Sam Bennett, Julian Alaphilippe, Lorrenzo Manzin and Clement Venturini.

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Van Aert doubles up with stunning sprint victory

Video credit: TNT Sports

Meanwhile, Briton Adam Yates retains the overall lead, holding a four-second advantage over Dylan Teuns.

The 201km flat stage from Boën-sur-Lignon to Voiron saw Stephane Rossetto, Alessandro De Marchi and Yoann Bagot form a three-man breakaway, with the trio leading by 30 seconds with 8km to go.

That advantage was halved with 3km remaining, and they were caught up with 1km left when Edvald Boasson Hagen and Philippe Gilbert looked to anticipate the bunch sprint finish.

But the duo could not stay ahead as Van Aert doubled up – and he now leads the sprinters classification with 82 points ahead of Boasson Hagen (53pts) and Bennett (47).

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