Tour de France: Peter Sagan wins stage 5

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After several near misses Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) took his first win on stage 5 of the 2019 Tour de France in Colmar ahead of Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) and Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton Scott).

The three-time world champion was simply too good for the opposition after a number of pure sprinters had been dropped on the climbs that littered the stage through the Vosges.

Team Sunweb controlled the peloton for most of the finale as they rallied behind Michael Matthews but the Australian was boxed in when the sprint began and could only manage seventh. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) finished tenth and retained his overall lead in the race.

For Sagan this was a huge victory in terms of both his race and his season. With just a pocket full of victories and limited support in the sprints at the Tour, Sagan cut a subdued and somewhat frustrated figure at the start of the race in Brussels, and although he eased into the green jersey earlier in the race a stage win was a desperately needed.

There were several close calls, including second on the opening stage, but in Colmar Sagan made no mistakes and stamped his authority over the reduced bunch with a commanding display of skill and speed.

When he hit the front with the line in sight the win was assured, and even a fast-finishing Van Aert could only watch on, having started his sprint from too far back. Trentin, had Daryl Impey for support but was forced to open his acceleration from too far out before fading to third. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) and Greg Van Avermaet (CCC-Liv) rounded out the top-five.

"You just have to be patient and the victory will come," Sagan said at the finish, the relief of victory clear for all to see.

"I have to say thanks to all my teammates, they did a very great job. Finally a Tour de France victory came for us, it's very nice. We controlled the race all day, on the flat part until the finish.

"I did my best and it came. If I don't win, then everybody will ask me what is missing. You can see, nothing is missing. It's just everybody needs good luck and a good day for a win."

Certainly Sagan was right to praise his team. They helped control a dangerous early break, and then helped nullify a late attack from Rui Costa who looked to roll back the years with a late attack, but this was a win that has Sagan stamped all over it.

Wellens goes climbing

After yesterday's modest attempts to form a breakaway there was far more intent as the race departed for stage 5 to Colmar. With several categorized climbs through the Vosges, there was a chance for a break to find balance and take a foothold and for almost 20km of racing, there was genuine competition to make the break. Thomas de Gendt was shut down three times before his teammate Tim Wellens moved clear with Mads Würtz Schmidt (Katusha-Alpecin), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Simon Clarke (EF Education First).

This was a break of real substance and quality but Bora and Sunweb were in no mood to let a race chance like this slip in the first week. They patrolled the peloton and managed the four leaders over the Côte de Grendelbruch and Côte du Haut-Koenigsbourg without the lead ever going above a few minutes.

As the stage wore on the hills began to make an impression. Caleb Ewan was the first pure sprinter to lose contact on Koenigsbourg but he was far from the last. With Chad Haga setting a brisk pace at the front of the bunch a number of riders began to slip out of contention.

On the 5km long Côte des Trois-Epis and with 38km to go the gap to the leaders hovered at 1:20 but the climb saw off Elia Viviani, Alexander Kristoff and Simon Yates as the peloton reached the lower slopes. Ilnur Zakarin – perhaps thinking about stage 6 – was the next rider to lose ground, as up ahead, Würtz was distanced by the break.

With 37km to go and Wellens weighed down by the KOM points he had been collecting like Pokemon on the earlier climbs, Skujins flew clear. The Trek rider quickly distanced the Lotto rider and Clarke as Sunweb, Bora and QuickStep set the pace. The lone leader was finally reeled in with 22km to go as the peloton marched up the final climb of the Côte des Cinq Chateaux (hill of the five castles).

Edvald Boasson Hagen proved a live show that encapsulated Dimension Data's season when he was unlucky to suffer a mechanical and forced to chase over the final ascent without a teammate in sight. The Norwegian, as he has done for much of year, would valiantly battle through and regain contact on the tricky descent but by then he was a spent force.

Rui Costa attacked with 7.4km to go but even with the reduced armory of the sprint teams, this was an optimistic attack to the say the least. The fact that he held a buffer of around 11 seconds until 2km to go does perhaps suggest that the UAE rider does have form for the rest of the race. However, buy now this was all about the finish and the riders that were left in contention.

Trek-Segafredo hit the front with 1,000m to go before Mohoric and then Impey made their lead-out efforts. In the end, it was all about the Sagan show as he flexed his muscles and showed off his Hulk celebration. We've seen it before and like winning it's synonymous with Sagan.

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