Tour de France: Van Avermaet takes stage win in Le Lioran

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Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) soloed into Le Lioran to claim victory on stage 5 of the Tour de France and move into the yellow jersey at the end of a demanding day in the Massif Central that saw Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) surrender all hopes of final overall victory and a struggling Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) concede yet more ground to his chief rivals.

Part of the day's early break of nine riders, Van Avermaet was well worth his victory, and he dropped his final companion Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) with a spirited attack on the penultimate climb, the Col du Perthus, with 17.5 kilometres still to race.

Van Avermaet crossed the line 2:34 up on his fellow countryman De Gendt and more than five minutes ahead of the group of overall contenders, meaning that he now holds an overall lead of 5:11 over second-placed Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep), though he is mindful that his hold on the maillot jaune will be an ephemeral one with the high mountains to come in just two days' time.

"One day is enough, and then afterwards we'll see how long I can keep it," Van Avermaet said. "But the Pyrenees will be too hard for me."

Indeed, the rolling roads of the Massif Central have already proved fatal to any podium aspirations that may have been held by Nibali, while the finale suggested, too, that Contador's decline in this race following his crash on stage 1 might be a terminal one.

Nibali was among the many riders distanced on the stiff category 2 ascent of the Pas de Peyrol, with 35 kilometres remaining, when Nairo Quintana's Movistar team began to force the pace at the front of the peloton. The Sicilian would eventually come home 13:45 behind on the stage and more than eight minutes behind Quintana, Chris Froome (Sky) and his Astana teammate Fabio Aru.

The combination of hillier terrain and higher temperatures of the Massif Central made for an abrupt change from the Tour's opening stages in the north, and the transition was a brutal one for some riders. Indeed, Nibali was far from the only man to struggle. Yellow jersey Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) were also dropped, as Movistar's forcing reduced the group of favourites to just 25 riders by the summit.

A hunched Contador, meanwhile, masked his suffering for much of the afternoon, and looked to have resisted the worst of the pressure when Sky set a rather steadier tempo on the Col du Perthus. A sharp acceleration from local rider Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) atop of the final ascent of the Font de Cère strung out the group just under three kilometres from the line, however, and Contador was immediately dislodged.

While Quintana, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) led the group back up to Bardet over the summit of the climb, Contador was unable to get back on terms, and he crossed the line 33 seconds down on all of his principal rivals for overall victory. The Spaniard now lies 25th overall, 6:38 behind Van Avermaet, but already 1:21 behind Froome and Quintana.

"It went better than I thought to be honest," Contador insisted, looking to put a brave face on another trying day. "I lost less time than I'd anticipated. I knew it would be difficult and that the other teams would try to make it hard for me. But I'm feeling better than a couple of days ago. Obviously, the crashes in the opening stages were not ideal, but I feel like I'm bouncing back."

The impending long weekend in the Pyrenees will reveal an awful lot more.

More on this story:

• Tour de France: Van Avermaet solos to stage win in Le Lioran
• Tour de France stage 5 finish line quotes
• Tour de France: Leg problems and lack of support leave Contador floundering

How it unfolded

The opening week of this Tour has been characterised by lengthy stages, and 216 kilometres in the rolling, heavy roads of the Massif Central have the tendency to feel even longer again. There was little surprise, then, when the peloton elected to allow a nine-man move sally clear early on, even if it did include lieutenants for Contador and Aru.

Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) and Andriy Grivko (Astana) were joined by Van Avermaet, De Gendt, Cyril Gautier (AG2R-La Mondiale), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), Bartosz Huzarski (Bora-Argon 18), Romain Sicard (Direct Energie) and Florian Vachon (Fortuneo-Vital Concept), and they had a lead of six minutes over the bunch after 70 kilometres.

Dissatisfied with the level of collaboration in the move, however, Van Avermaet and De Gendt formed an alliance of circumstance, accelerating away from the group with almost 100 kilometres still to race, joined only by Grivko. That leading trio established a maximum lead of 15 minutes over the main peloton, while the Majka group never struck up a true working arrangement and instead chugged along intermittently almost three minutes back for much of the afternoon.

The Pas de Peyrol – whose descent ended Alexander Vinokourov's Tour de France in 2011 – ignited the action both out in front and back in the main peloton. Unhappy with Grivko's contribution, De Gendt and Van Avermaet decided to ride themselves of the Ukrainian – "Grivko and Majka weren't working. Thomas and I were the strongest guys from the break, so we got a gap," Van Avermaet said – while behind, Movistar took over the pace-setting from Team Sky and quickly upped the ante.

Quintana's guard impressed in clipping back the break's mammoth advantage and whittling the main peloton down to 25 or so riders. Come the summit, however, Jesus Herrada was the only rider left to support Quintana and Valverde, and the team suspended its offensive, allowing Team Sky to take over on the two remaining climbs.

Mikel Nieve and Sergio Henao tapped out a steadier tempo on the Pethus and Font de Cère, and it looked as if Nibali would be the only favourite to incur losses on a demanding day, but word of Contador's travails had spread through the group.

"The whispers were that he wasn't good and the guys smelt blood and went for him," Richie Porte (BMC) said afterwards. An unforgiving business, the Tour de France.

Out in front, meanwhile, Van Avermaet sensed that he had the beating of De Gendt, and he duly dropped his compatriot on the stiffest section of the Perthus, extended his advantage on the Font de Cère, and won in Le Lioran by some 2:34. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) led the Froome-Quintana group home, just over five minutes down.

Van Avermaet's sparkling spring campaign was cut short by a crash at the Tour of Flanders, and even with the yellow jersey on his shoulders, the one-time nearly man of Belgian cycling recalled that his profession brings more heartbreak than happiness. "You lose so often," he said. "You have so many disappointments: you have to enjoy it when it when you win.

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