photo credits @ ASO
Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) took an impressive victory in stage 5 of the Tour de France today, after the British rider rode clear with Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) at the start of the Col de Soudet, later attacking his fellow breakaway companions along the Col de Marie Blanque, followed by a lone descent into Laruns to claim a solo victory by more than half a minute ahead of Ciccione.
Meanwhile, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) dropped Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) on the Col de Marie Blanque, gaining more than a minute on his rival in the process.
Hindley now dons the yellow jersey, while Vingegaard moved up to second overall, 47 seconds behind Hindley, while already some 54 seconds ahead of Pogačar.
Race Highlights
On a day to forget for UAE Team Emirates, Adam Yates was forced to relinquish the yellow jersey to Hindley and dropped to fifth place, one place ahead of Pogačar, who saw his 11-second lead over Vingegaard morph into a deficit of 53 seconds.
The damage was done on the third and final climb in the Pyrenees when Vingegaard rode clear of Pogačar after some expert pacing from his American teammate Sepp Kuss.
As the white jersey of Pogačar dug deep to limit his losses, Vingegaard, who had three Jumbo teammates up the road as satellite riders, soared past remnants of the day’s large breakaway in pursuit of the lone leader.
Hindley crested the summit of the Marie Blanque with a 20-second lead over Gall, the new polka dot jersey, and had to keep his cool on a technical descent ahead of the fast run into the finish at Laruns.
Vingegaard joined forces with Gall, Ciccone and Buchmann to set up a tense finale. But, the quartet was unable to deny Hindley a memorable win just five days into his Tour debut.
“I was sort of improvising out there and enjoying some bike racing. I just managed to find myself in that group. It’s really incredible. I have no words. The guys on the radio were just screaming at me to ride to the line. I couldn’t really hear so much what was happening. I just wanted to take as much time as possible – and also the stage win – and, yeah, found myself in the yellow jersey, so that’s pretty cool,” said a jubilant Hindley after the stage.
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