Froome lieutenant Wout Poels of Ineos won the Criterium 'Queen' stage

Les Sept Laux (France) (AFP) - Dutch climb specialist Wout Poels of Team Ineos won the mountainous penultimate stage of the Criterium du Dauphine, which was raced in a downpour on Saturday.

Poels was with Chris Froome on Wednesday when the four-time Tour de France winner broke his hip, leg, elbow and ribs in a horrific, freakish crash, leaving the Dutch rider in shock.

Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang pulled on the overall race leader’s yellow jersey eight seconds ahead of the Briton Adam Yates after a rain-lashed 133km stage Saturday.

At the end of an almost 20km climb, Poels edged Bora man Emanuel Buchmann and Fuglsang in the toughest stage on the race.

Fuglsang won this race in 2017 and if he can hold on to the lead over the dense, steep 113km route Sunday will mark himself out as one of the favourites for the Tour de France.

The race is still wide open with EF rider Tejay Van Garderen third overall at 20sec, Buchman fourth at 21, Poels fifth at 28.