Tour de France stage 5: Jai Hindley doubles up, Jonas Vingegaard gaps Tadej Pogačar in stunner
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Jai Hindley doubles, Jonas Vingegaard attacks, Tadej Pogačar struggles — the first day of the Pyrénées delivered some stunners in the 162.7km climbing stage from Pau to Laruns at the Tour de France.
To the brave go the spoils.
The Cat. 1 Col de Marie Blanque with about 20km to go proved kingmaker and executioner for many in the peloton in a wild stage that saw a big group peel away early featuring the 2022 Giro d’Italia winner.
Hindley presented his credentials as a GC favorite when he rode into a big group of 30, and then attacked everyone to drive home to a stunning solo victory. Overnight leader Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) couldn’t answer, so the yellow jersey made it a magical double for the Australian on Bora-Hansgrohe.
“It is incredible, really. I have no words. Really, I have no words,” Hindley said. “The guys in the radio were just screaming, ‘just ride it to the line.’ I couldn’t really hear so much of what was happening. I just wanted to gain as much time as possible and also the stage win. I found myself in the yellow jersey, so that was pretty cool.
“I didn’t really know what to expect. It is my first Tour and I think it’s hard to come here with such massive ambitions already,” he said. “But for sure I wanted to come here and be competitive and have some form of success. I just won a stage of the Tour de France, it is pretty incredible.”
Even more surprising was seeing Pogačar struggle to keep pace on the upper flanks of the Marie Blanque.
Jumbo-Visma’s Sepp Kuss was softening up the main GC group tapping along about two minutes behind Hindley when Vingegaard suddenly attacked with a vicious surge.
“The guys did super great today. On the final climb, I felt good, and I said to Sepp he should go to the front to start pushing, and then I attacked,” Vingegaard said. “I just felt and I only looked at myself and see if I could attack. I know Tadej never gives up, and it will be a fight all the way to Paris.
“I am super happy with having 53 seconds,” Vingegaard said. “We have to look to Jai Hindley. I think I had a super good day, yeah.”
Pogačar, who looked strong in the opening weekend in the Basque Country, couldn’t immediately answer. Vingegaard powered on alone to hold a 40-second gap to Pogačar who found some company to help the chase to limit the losses.
Vingegaard powered home with fifth, and Pogačar ceded 1:06 to his Danish rival.
With the GC deck reshuffled, Hindley now leads Vingegaard by 47 seconds, and Pogačar slips from second to sixth, now at 1:40.
And that’s after the first mountain stage in what’s a very mountainous edition of the Tour.
How it played out: Big move goes early
A big group went early. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Stage 5 of the Tour de France was the first in the high mountains with a day featuring almost 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) of vertical gain. It covered 164 kilometers from Pau to Laruns and would give the clearest insight yet into the form of the GC riders.
After an intermediate sprint at Lanne-en-Barétous, the climbing began with the hors categorie 15-kilometer-long Col de Soudet, featuring percentages as high as 15 percent and topping out at km. 87.5. That was followed by the short, sharp Col d’Ichère (category 3, km. 125), then by the demanding first category Marie Blanque, which has double-digit grades for the final 4km, and peaked at km. 145.
This was in turn followed by an 11.5 kilometer descent, and then a gently rising final 7.5km.
The stage rolled out without Luis León Sánchez (Astana Qazaqstan) and Jacopo Guarnieri (Lotto-Dstny), both injured in crashes in the final of stage 4. That left 172 riders in the race.
Early attacker Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) had a ten second lead after 11km of racing and was joined by eight others, with this early aggression then seeing a break of 50 riders push ahead.
Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) was the best placed rider overall, having started the day 22″ back in 7th, and the break’s advantage of over a minute saw the UAE Team Emirates squad of race leader Adam Yates lose yellow on the road. It responded by driving the chase behind.
Also present in the day’s move were big names such as Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Dani Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers), Esteban Chaves and Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-EasyPost), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Mads Pederson (Lidl-Trek), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), the American rider Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team) and the Canadian Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech). It was a strong breakaway and presented a danger to the other GC riders.
American rider Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) crashed heavily in the bunch with 37 kilometers covered but was able to continue. Out front, Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Pedersen, Van Aert and Victor Campanaerts (Lotto-Dstny) crossed the sprint prime line in that order, with Campanaerts then pushing on alone.
He was joined by Pedersen and Van Aert and heading onto the Col de Soudet the trio was approximately 1’20 ahead of 33 chasers and 2’40 up on the peloton. Pedersen was then dropped by Van Aert and Campanaerts, who in turn were reeled in by some of those chasers with 2.5km remaining of that climb.
Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citroen) attacked alone to go over the summit first with Martínez and Ciccone next across. Gall was rejoined by several others, with Krists Neilands (Israel Premier Tech) then playing his card with a solo move. He was 18 seconds clear of Van Aert and Alaphilippe heading onto the Col d’Ichère but subsequently recaptured by them on the descent.
Vingegaard blows the race apart
Vingegaard extracted some valuable seconds to his rivals. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
The leaders raced onto the foothills of the Marie Blanque, with the Hindley group chasing behind and gradually getting back up to them. Gall was feeling good and attacked 4km from the summit, with Hindley the only one able to follow. The Australian then went solo 1.5km from the top, at which point he was 35 seconds ahead of the other chasers, 1’19 up on Alaphilippe’s group and 2’04 ahead of Yates and the other GC contenders.
He knew he was looking good for yellow and hammered it.
Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) then put the foot down and dragged Vingegaard and Pogačar clear, while race leader Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), twin brother Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and others were dropped.
With 19.2km on the clock for Hindley, Vingegaard put in a huge surge and dropped Pogačar, creating major drama for the Tour’s big GC battle. Hindley went over the summit 1’07 ahead of Vingegaard and 1’43 up on Pogačar and Kuss. Vingegaard continued to chase hard and picked up Gall, Buchmann and Ciccone on the run in to the finish, but ended up doing all of the work. Behind, Pogačar was caught by the Yates group, with those two riders trading pulls to try to limit their losses.
Hindley went past the 3km to go banner 40″ clear of the Vingegaard group and 1’53 in front of Pogačar’s chase, those gaps making him certain to take the victory. He duly raced home for the win and the yellow jersey, with Ciccone leading in the chasers 32 seconds back, Vingegaard rolling in 34″ down and Mattias Skejmose (Lidl-Trek) bringing home the Pogačar group 1’38 behind.
Source: Outside Magazine
