Tour de France stage 5 LIVE: Sprinters finally set to have their say in Pau
All the action on a flat stage that's expected to produce the first bunch sprint of the 2026 edition
Soudal-QuickStep and Alpecin-Premier Tech have taken over from Uno-X at the head of the peloton, the sprint teams getting involved early and even taking the gap to the lone escapee down to 2:30.
"Three minutes only?!"
Veistroffer pulls up alongside his team car and we can just about make out what they're saying.
"Three minutes only? With one guy in front?"
Our solo leader is clearly non-plussed by the short leash he's being kept on by the peloton. As he points out, he's one lone rider against an army. Back in the day double-digits would be a common gap for a breakaway of several riders, but these days teams don't want to ramp up the chase later on, preferring a steadier spread of energy. It is slightly ridiculous.
A first shot of our breakaway hero, Baptiste Veistroffer.
Uno-X controlling
The gap reaches the three-minute mark after around 15km of racing and that's the cue for the peloton to start picking up the pace to control this eminently controllable breakaway.
It's Uno-X on the front, fulfilling their duties as the team with the yellow jersey. Torsten Træen is the man in yellow, the Norwegian taking the jersey from Tadej Pogačar thanks to his presence in yesterday's big break.
More on what this means for Træen and his team here in this article from Stephen Farrand
A dying art
Breakaways are a dying art in the modern peloton on stages such as these. We have even seen a couple of Tour stages take place with no breakaway whatsoever in recent years, so at least we have one man out front today.
The heat will no doubt be a factor, with few riders wanting to exert themselves in temperatures that are bordering on the dangerous anyway. But doomed breakaways on sprint stages have long been trending down. Usually you could rely on the wildcard invited teams, for whom it would be a sort of de facto pact with ASO to animate the race and justify their inclusion. But there are only two wildcards now, and even they are now more than publicity seekers, with proper sprint ambitions in their own right – Caja Rural have Fernando Gaviria here.
It's upending the rhythms of the Tour de France and is perhaps a vicious circle – days like what we have here now may only encourage the organisers to lean even further away from pan-flat terrain in the future.
Breakaway is formed
That's it, then. Veistroffer pings off, no one else registers even the most remote of interests in going along with him. It's a one-man Tour de France breakaway formed in a matter of seconds.
Immediate attack from Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché)
Kilometre-zero
We reach kilometre-zero, race director Christian Prudhomme rises from the sunroof of his red Skoda, waves his yellow flag, and we are underway on stage 5 of the Tour de France!
Contenders
We've mentioned Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and the Belgian is the top Tour de France sprinter of recent years, with 10 stages to his name already. With a strong lead-out train that includes Mathieu van der Poel, he's a hot favourite.
Philipsen's closest rival in recent years has been his fellow Belgian, Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), who bagged two stages last year. He had a disrupted start to the season but has six wins to his name already and looks back to his best.
Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) also had a disrupted season start, and his very presence was doubted when Paul Seixas shot through the roof and revolutionised the team's plans for the Tour. But Kooij, finally riding his first Tour after years of limited opportunities at Visma, proved himself with three wins in two build-up races.
Biniam Girmay (NSN) won the green jersey two years ago and though he didn't win a single race in 2025, he's looking more like his old self again these days.
And don't count out Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who won from the breakaway yesterday but can more than hold his own in bunch kicks.
There are plenty more names who could also spring a surprise, so we should be in for a competitive and exciting sprint.
The riders are rolling. They'll make their way through a short neutral zone before the stage is waved underway.
Pau is a Tour de France staple, this being the 77th time the Tour will visit. Only Paris and Bordeaux have welcomed the Tour on more occasions. It's often seen as the gateway to the Pyrenees, so has a key strategic location, all the infrastructure you need to host a finish and start (tomorrow), plus a really strong enthusiasm for cycling and the Tour within the local council.
We had a year off last year, so the last visit to Pau was in 2024 when a certain Jasper Philipsen was victorious. The Belgian is among the top favourites again today.
The roll-out is coming up at 14:05 local time, with the race set to properly get underway at 14:15 – so in around 25 minutes from now.
This is the scene at the start in Lannemezan, where the riders are currently signing on for today's stage
Welcome and preamble
Hello there and welcome along as we head deeper into the Tour de France and towards what is expected to be our first bunch sprint of the 2026 edition.
There was a time when the opening week was littered with flat stages, but this year the fast finishers have had to through what have essentially been three GC days and a breakaway day – not to mention a heatwave – before finally finding terrain suited to them.
The Tour is trending away from traditional bunch kicks and there aren't ample opportunities on the 2026 route so all the big-name sprinters will be eager not to let this opportunity pass by.
There are a few lumps and bumps on this 158km stage, but nothing that is realistically going to trouble the sprinters, so expect a battle royale on the streets of Pau, which is the third-most-visited city in Tour de France history. Oh, and it's another scorcher in the south of France.
