Vincenzo Nibali takes Criterium du Dauphine lead as Rui Costa wins

Vincenzo Nibali has taken the lead of the Criterium du Dauphine

Vincenzo Nibali took the lead of the Criterium du Dauphine with an aggressive and opportunistic performance on a rain-soaked sixth stage won by Rui Costa.

Nibali (Astana) had started the day 1min 33sec adrift of the overall lead and looked out of contention for the yellow jersey, but he formed part of a high-pedigree five-man breakaway alongside Costa (Lampre-Merida), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) and Tony Martin (Etixx – Quick-Step) and the quintet opened up a gap that their rivals in the chasing peloton were unable to close.

The group began attacking each other in the final 4km and Costa beat Nibali into second place by five seconds, with Valverde finishing 38 seconds down in third.

Rui Costa won stage six of the Criterium du Dauphine

However, Chris Froome (Team Sky) and previous race leader Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) were both caught out by the breakaway and finished more than two minutes down on Costa in ninth and 11th respectively.

That meant Nibali moved to the top of the general classification and opened up a lead of 29 seconds over second-placed Costa and 30 seconds over third-placed Valverde.

Britain’s Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) climbed to fourth overall, 35 seconds down, after attacking out of Froome’s group with around 10km remaining to cross the line in an impressive fifth on the day, 1min 24sec back.

Froome, meanwhile, slips to seventh place, 1min 21sec off the pace, but he is still within striking distance of overall victory ahead of Saturday and Sunday’s crucial mountain stages.

Nibali holds the advantage, however, after an astute display that came just 24 hours after his chances of winning the race looked to have been buried when he was dropped by his rivals on stage five's summit finish.

Chris Froome has slipped to seventh overall

The Italian said: “Frankly, I was looking for the stage victory more than the yellow-blue jersey. I’m crazy. I didn’t go for such a long breakaway since I rode in the young categories.”

Nibali seized the initiative midway through stage six when, with Martin leading solo, he took the risk of attempting to bridge across along with Costa, Valverde and Gallopin.

Martin later fell away and Nibali consequently took up the bulk of the pace-setting until Gallopin attacked with 3.9km remaining and moved into a lone lead.

Nibali counter-attacked with 1.5km to go and, after catching and passing Gallopin, it looked like would take the stage victory. However, Costa rallied and snatched the win in the final 300m.

Stage six result

1 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida, 4:29:23
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +5secs
3 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +38
4 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal, +39
5 Simon Yates (GB) Orica-GreenEdge, +1:24
6 Dan Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin, +1:46
7 John Gadret (Fra) Movistar, +1:48
8 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +1:59
9 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +2:12
10 Benat Intxausti (Esp) Movistar, same time
Selected other
11 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, +2:14

General classification

1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, 22:34:17
2 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida, +29secs
3 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +30
4 Simon Yates (GB) Orica-GreenEdge, +35
5 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, +42
6 Benat Intxausti (Esp) Movistar, +57
7 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +1:21
8 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal, +1:29
9 Dan Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin, +1:30
10 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Garmin, +2:07