Sam Bennett was edged into second place in stage five of the Criterium du Dauphine as Wout Van Aert doubled up in France with victory in Voiron.
With the 201km stage from Boen-sur-Lignon coming down to a bunch finish, Bennett was just beaten to the line by Belgian prodigy and former cyclo-cross champion Van Aert, who showed his sprinting prowess twenty-four hours after taking his first WorldTour win in Wednesday's time trial.
Carrick-on-suir rider Bennett, who won Tuesday's third stage, secured six bonus seconds for his runners-up placing and sits in 109th place on the General Classification.
Dan Martin finds himself well placed overall heading into the mountain stages as the UAE Team Emirates rider sits just one minute 13 seconds off the lead.
Adam Yates retained the overall lead, and due to the sprint finish there were no changes at the top of the general classification, where the Mitchelton-Scott rider leads by four seconds from Dylan Theuns of Bahrain-Merida.
The 26-year-old English cyclist was grateful that windy conditions did not lead to splits on the road.
"Nothing really happened until about 60km to go," Yates said. "The wind was picking up a little bit but still, it wasn't the right direction or it wasn't strong enough to do anything.
"So it was just a bit of stress in the peloton. No more."
The race continues on Friday with a lumpy 229km stage from Saint-Vulbas Plaine de L'Ain to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne which takes riders over eight categorised climbs before a descent into town, the first of three mountain stages to finish.
"I don't know much about tomorrow's finale in particular," Yates added. "The downhill at the end could be decisive but it's not worth risking your life for gaining 10 seconds.
"Any stage from now on is pretty hard, the last two are quite short and selective, but as I said yesterday I'm feeling good. The sensations are good."
