Tour de France Stage 5: Dream Day for Hindley As He Solos to Yellow in Pyrénées; Vingegaard Drops Pogačar
BORA-Hansgrohe’s Jai Hindley just lived out a Tour de France dream scenario of dropping everyone to ride into Tour de France glory on stage 5... and might just have given hopes to his real dream of total victory. The Australian former Giro d’Italia winner was allowed to join the day’s breakaway, given a long leash of several minutes heading into the Col de Marie Blanque, where he picked off his break-mates with the climbing brilliance that has made him a champion, dropping Felix Gall of AG2R on the final slope to solo away for the final 20km to the finish in Laruns.
Chaos reigned behind him as well, as UAE’s early show of strength went for naught as the favorites’ group blew apart on the steep slopes of the Marie Blanque, where Jumbo’s Jonas Vingegaard, the defending champion, accelerated away from Tadej Pogačar and left the Slovenian foundering and fighting for his Tour. Vingegaard picked up some of the breakaway riders, including Trek’s Giulio Ciccone who took second on the day, and they chipped away at Hindley’s overall advantage, something Vingegaard must be taking seriously now.
In the battle of team strength it was a huge upset to see BORA put the tactics to the big teams. They had Emanuel Buchmann, Hindley’s most talented supporter in the mountains, in the break with Hindley, so that when it was time for the Perth native to take over, he had been escorted into position to make the move stick. For their part, Jumbo-Visma had Wout Van Aert up the road as well, and UAE assumed all the work leading to the conclusion, where Sepp Kuss remained with Vingegaard and set some tempo for the 2022 winner until his acceleration that left Pogačar behind.
Stage
- HINDLEY Jai, BORA - hansgrohe, 3:57:07
- CICCONE Giulio , Lidl - Trek, at 0:32
- GALL Felix, AG2R Citroën Team
- BUCHMANN Emanuel, BORA - hansgrohe
- VINGEGAARD Jonas, Jumbo-Visma, at 0:34
- SKJELMOSE Mattias, Lidl - Trek, at 1:38
- MARTÍNEZ Daniel Felipe, INEOS Grenadiers
- POGAČAR Tadej, UAE Team Emirates
- GAUDU David, Groupama - FDJ
- RODRÍGUEZ Carlos, INEOS Grenadiers
GC
- HINDLEY Jai, BORA - hansgrohe, 22:15:12
- VINGEGAARD Jonas, Jumbo-Visma, at 0:47
- CICCONE Giulio, Lidl - Trek, at 1:03
- BUCHMANN Emanuel, BORA - hansgrohe, at 1:11
- YATES Adam, UAE Team Emirates, at 1:34
- POGAČAR Tadej, UAE Team Emirates, at 1:40
- YATES Simon, Team Jayco AlUla, s.t.
- SKJELMOSE Mattias, Lidl - Trek, at 1:56
- RODRÍGUEZ Carlos, INEOS Grenadiers, s.t.
- GAUDU David, Groupama - FDJ
Pau - Laruns 162.7 km
First big mountains already on stage 5 is quite the anomaly for the Tour, we’re getting the sense now how different this year’s course really is. Without the uphill finale it’s unlikely this is a big GC day though unless someone has really sinister plans.
Expected finish time: 17:20-17:50 CEST
White Mary of the Day : Matteo Jorgenson
Man on a super year who has happened to lose some GC time and on a team that lost its leader and are hunting stages instead? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!