Tour de France: Aru wins on La Planche des Belles Filles

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Fabio Aru (Astana) claimed his first Tour de France stage win with an explosive performance on La Planche des Belles Filles on stage 5, with Chris Froome (Team Sky) returning to the scene of his first Tour stage win to take the yellow jersey of overall leader.

Aru, who switched his focus to the Tour de France after a knee injury ruled him out of the Giro d'Italia, made a real statement of intent, springing clear of the group of general classification favourites just over two kilometres from the summit of the steep final climb to win alone.

Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) accelerated away from the whittled down chasing group on the brutal final ramp to the line to take second place, 16 seconds in arrears, while Froome finished third, a further four seconds back.

"I'm amazed. I attacked and gave it everything. I wanted to see who would move because Team Sky was setting a fast pace. I wanted to see what they had," said Aru, who took great pride in completing his Grand Tour set in the newly-acquired tricolore jersey of Italian champion.

"The final 300 metres were terrible but then when I looked back with 200 metres to go and I knew I had it."

The Tour de France hasn't featured a first-category climb this early in the race for 25 years yet, as just one of three summit finishes on the 2017 route, it wasn't an opportunity to be wasted.

Despite the stiff gradients – an average of 8.5 per cent with plenty of double digit slopes – La Planche des Belles Filles is a short climb at just under six kilometres and proved to be more of an indicator of riders' form rather than a chance to create major time gaps. But there were some striking developments.

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was dropped as Froome accelerated behind Aru with 1.7km to go. So too were Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) and maillot jaune Geraint Thomas (Sky). In fact, only Martin, Richie Porte (BMC), and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) could follow Froome, though the dropped riders would drag themselves back into contention as that quartet hesitated and looked at each other.

Porte, whose team had worked all day long to prevent the breakaway from contesting the stage win, kicked things off again inside the final kilometre, on the approach to the final ramp to the line. The Australian, seen by some as the pre-race favourite, was just pipped by Froome and finished on the same time, 20 seconds down on Aru.

Bardet faded somewhat in the final metres to finish at 24 seconds, with Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) coming over a couple of seconds later to take the white jersey for best young rider. Alberto Contador was 26 seconds down on the stage winner but it was worse still for Nairo Quintana (Movistar), who was 34 seconds down.

Thomas struggled over the line at 40 seconds, along with Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), though the Sky man is still in the top three overall.

Criterium du Dauphine winner Jakob Fuglsang was probably the biggest loser, shipping 1:17 to his teammate Aru, which at least clears up the Astana leadership hierarchy.

"It's an amazing feeling to be back in yellow," said Froome. "Having said that I know the race is far, far from over.

"As a team, we're in a great position – first and second. We can take confidence from that and it gives us options going forward in terms being able to play both cards."

How it unfolded

As the Tour de France woke up for its fifth stage, the upcoming first bout of direct hostilities between the overall favourites was still far from the forefront of minds, with the shockwaves of Peter Sagan's disqualification the previous evening still rippling through the village départ in Vittel.

While Sagan issued a statement from the Bora-Hansgrohe team hotel, Mark Cavendish spoke from the Dimension Data team bus, and just about every other rider was asked for their take on the matter.

A bike race would, however, eventually break out, and the peloton rolled out of Vittel towards the first of three summit finishes on this Tour de France.

Unlike Tuesday, when Guillaume Van Keirsbulck was the only rider to stick his hand up for the breakaway, this time there was plenty of interest, though the decisive move still went quickly. Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie) sparked it, and soon there were seven riders with him.

They were: Jan Bakelants (AG2R La Mondiale), Mickael Delage (FDJ), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data), Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac), Pierre-Luc Perichon (Fortuneo-Oscaro), Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal). Tsgabu Grmay (Bahrain-Merida) tried to jump across but, after a stint in no man's land, was called back to the bunch.

The breakaway started to open up an advantage but BMC soon came to the front, and it was quickly apparent that their chances of disputing the stage win were slim. Bakelants started the day just 16 seconds off Geraint Thomas' overall lead but Sky showed no interest in chasing and left it up to BMC, who were clearly keen to work for a stage win for Porte.

The breakaway never managed to extend their lead beyond 3:30 and by the Côte d'Esmoulières, the only other climb (Cat. 3) on the route besides La Planche des Belles Filles, it had fallen below the two-minute mark. Moments before, Boasson Hagen had mopped up maximum points at the intermediate sprint, ahead of Gilbert and De Gendt, while Michael Matthews made use of a full Sunweb lead-out to mop up the most of what was left for the peloton.

On the climb, Bakelants went on the attack over the top while Delage and De Gendt were dropped for good. Bakelants waited for his companions and the six of them stretched their lead back up to 2:30 thanks to a lull in the bunch on the climb.

BMC continued their charge, and with 12km to go Gilbert decided to roll the dice, dropping all but Bakelants. The Belgian duo took a lead of around a minute into the start of the Planche des Belles Filles ascent, by which point Sky had said 'thank you very much' to BMC and had taken over on the approach to the climb. Kwiatkowski took up the reins as the gradients hit the double digits in the early section, while Sergio Henao, Mikel Landa, Mikel Nieve, Chris Froome, and Geraint Thomas were tucked in behind.

As Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) launched a hopeful attack, the two leaders were caught with around 4km to go, and still, Kwiatkowski continued, setting such a pace that even Landa, who hadn't done a turn, couldn't keep up with. The Pole pulled over with 3.3km to go, handing it over to Mikel Nieve. At this point, Contador's teammate Bauke Mollema was dropped, as was Sky's Henao.

The first real GC attack came from Aru with 2.3km to go, the Italian quickly opening a gap as he sprang out of the saddle. Sky, in contrasting style, set about grinding down the gap but failed to make inroads, and it was down to Froome to attack with 1.7km to go, even if it meant dropping the yellow jersey Thomas.

After Simon Yates put in a grinding big-gear acceleration – in stark contrast to Aru's explosiveness – Froome accelerated away and dragged Porte with him, along with Dan Martin and Bardet. Thomas was immediately in trouble, while it was more surprising to see Quintana and Contador losing ground.

Froome pulled over with 1.2km to go, playing a game to force others to take it up, and Dan Martin duly obliged. Contador had nearly dragged the dropped riders back when Porte accelerated in the final few hundred metres, but by then it was clear Aru was going to celebrate the victory.

Martin used his Fleche Wallonne punch to spring clear on the steep final ramp, while Froome rode in close behind to resume his trend of taking the maillot jaune on the first summit finish.

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