Tour de France: Van Aert wins stage 5

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Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) was given his chance to contest a Tour de France sprint in Privas instead of riding for team leader Primož Roglič, and the Belgian stepped up to win, coming off Cees Bol’s lead-out wheel to beat some of best sprinters in the sport.

Following a quiet stage, with no breakaway of the day, the final 20km were fast and furious into a strong head wind. The Ineos Grenadiers team tried to split the peloton with nine kilometres to go as road furniture narrowed the road but every team fought to keep their overall contenders and sprinters well placed up front. 

Bol had a perfect lead-out from five Sunweb teammates in the final two kilometres but simply couldn’t hold off Van Aert in the finishing straight, despite having the best line along the barriers. Both riders threw their bikes at the line but Van Aert won it and raised his arms in celebration.  

Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) finishing third and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) fourth, with the other sprinters left frustrated and further back. Bennett’s only minor consolation was taking the green jersey from Sagan to become the first Irish rider to lead a classification at the Tour de France since Sean Kelly in 1989. 

Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) finished 16th, safely in the peloton but was stunned to be told post-stage that he had been penalised 20 seconds for an illegal feed from a road-side soigneur with 17km to go. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was hastily called to the podium and awarded the yellow jersey.

UCI regulations state that 'unauthorised feeding' in the final 20km of a stage carries both a 200 Swiss franc fine and a 20-second time penalty per offence. Feeding from the roadside is considered dangerous due to the high speeds in the final part of races.

The 20-second time penalty meant Alaphilippe dropped to 16th place on the general classification, 16 seconds behind Yates.

Van Aert has now won Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, the Belgian time trial championships and two sprints in the rescheduled season, here at the Tour and another at the Critérium du Dauphiné. 

On Tuesday he was working as a mountain domestique for Roglič, now he has taken a second consecutive stage for Jumbo-Visma.   

“I knew it was a stage that suited me and I’m just so happy I got the opportunity from the team to go for it. If you have one shot and you can finish it off, it’s even more sweet,” he said.

Everyone in the peloton wanted to be on the Team Sunweb lead-out but Van Aert made sure he was there.  

“I think it was quite important to keep a good position early on because it was hard uphill,” he explained. 

“I managed to be behind Sunweb who did a good lead-out. Then I launched my sprint from the moment I saw Bol going in front of me. it was quite tight but I was also on the outside so I think it was maybe just half a wheel or something, but it was enough.”

How it unfolded

The 183km stage took the peloton east from Gap in the Haute-Alpes to the Rhône valley and then into the rolling roads of the Ardeche for the finish in Privas.

It was a true transition stage before the mountain finish at Mont Aigoual on Thursday, with a breakaway expected to take off early before the sprinters' teams took over and brought them to heel. 

However, when race director Christian Prudhomme waved a flag from the roof of his red car after the neutralized roll out, Bora-Hansgrohe and Deceuninck-QuickStep sat at the front but there was no immediate attack for them to chase. 

Perhaps for a number of factors, including the intermediate sprint after 47km, fear of crosswinds in the final, thought for Thursday’s important stage and perhaps even a desire to show who is in charge, the race never came alive, with the riders happy to hold a truce and roll along. They didn’t go especially slow, eventually covering the stage at 42km/h, but there were just no real attacks.  

The intermediate sprint came after 47km in L'Epine but did little to ignite the race. 

The sprinters fought for the points and Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won with his hands on the tops of his brake levers, indicating a lack of true intensity. Peter Sagan was only fourth and so the Irishman took the lead in the virtual green jersey classification, from the Slovakian. 

With Sagan clearly not at his best, his rivals seem to sense they have a chance of beating him in every sprint and even for the green jersey in Paris.  

Following the sprint the pace dropped again as the riders eased. The fears of the hectic, high-speed finish was clearly on their minds, with going in a futile breakaway not even inspiring the lesser teams.    

Deceuninck-QuickStep and Bora-Hansgrohe controlled the peloton for much of the middle part of the stage as the road descended gradually, winding via stunning gorges and lavender fields. After two hours the average speed was a steady 41.58km/h. 

The fourth category Col de Serre Colon (4.1km at 3.7%) after 130km failed to ignite the race, with Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) edging clear to sweep up the single point for the polka-dot mountains classification. 

Fortunately the descent, the narrow country roads and the fear for the finale, did then sparked some frissons of action. Bahrain McLaren, Jumbo-Visma, Movistar, Bora and NTT Pro Cycling began to gather at the front with less than 50km to race. It was finally race on. 

Wout Poels (Bahrain McLaren) was seen at the back, suffering due to bruised lungs and a broken rib. With the speeds up to around 50km/h, he was briefly cruelly cast away but did manage to make it back and limit his losses.

With 35km to go, Groupama-FDJ hit the front, protecting Pinot so as not to get caught in any echelons like at Albi a year ago. This time the dangerous section was before Montelimar with 40km to go. 

The peloton was packed across the road ready for an attack, an echelon or a crash but again, nothing much happened. The wind was more headwind than cross wind and so blunted any idea of attacking.         

The nervousness did spark one crash, with the USA’s Sepp Kuss going down. However, he was OK and was soon up and chasing back into the peloton. Soon after Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) also suffered a rear puncture but thanks to using caliper brakes, he received a rapid rear wheel change and chased back on. 

After passing through Montelimar and back into the hills, the headwind kept the peloton together, with teams lining up in formation, rubbing shoulders with their rivals.   

Cosnefroy was first to the top of the Côte de Saint-Vincent-de-Barrès with only 16km to go, but by then Alaphilippe had mistakenly taken that costly late bidon and everyone else was focused on the rapidly approaching, highly technical and rising sprint finish.