Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews live coverage of stage 5 of the Tour de France, the first setpiece GC battle of the 2025 race, in the shape of a 33 kilometre individual time trial in the northern city of Caen.
The first rider down the start ramp will be Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS-Astana) at 1305 CET. He's the reigning Kazakhstan National TT Champion and multiple Eurasian TT Champion, winning the latter a mere four years in a row, so his time should be a good reference point, right from the start.
For all the start-times, Cyclingnews has it in full here. There are 181 starters, the first 86 off at minute intervals (until 1430 CET), then the next 80 at 90 second intervals (until 1630), and the final 15 at 2 minute intervals.
Tour de France stage 5 time trial start times
Here's a map of the route, running northwesterly out of Caen into the Normandy countryside then looping back to the finish in the city.
In stark contrast to the stage 13 mountain TT, with 600+ metres of elevation gain in 10 kilometres, this one has a whopping 200 metres of elevation gain over 33 kilometres, and that comparatively low count means this first-week test favours the TT specialists.
Enter stage left, therefore, Remco Evenepoel, double World Time Trial Champion, winner of the same first week TT last year in the Tour and winner of the Critérium du Dauphiné time trial. The Soudal-QuickStep leader was already a top favourite and in the regrettable absence of Italian TT giant Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), who crashed out in the very first day of the Tour, and leading Swiss specialist Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R Mondiale), who also exited the race after falling on stage 1, arguably even more so.
Evenepoel has some major GC aspirations as well of course, and Stephen Farrand has written all about what today means for Evenepoel, here:
'A yellow dream is possible' - Remco Evenepoel eyes Tour de France leader jersey after responding to Tadej Pogcar's attacks on hilly road to Rouen
A shot this morning of Remco Evenepoel's TT bike for today's stage. He's due off at 1644 CET.
For those wanting to get to know the bike in more detail, Will Jones has a full gallery and technical breakdown of Evenepoel's TT machine, right here.
A 64-tooth chainring and custom bars for Remco Evenepoel's time trial bike for Stage 5 of the Tour de France
Less than ten minutes to go before the time trial gets underway, so here's a reminder of the various classification leaders:
Overall (yellow jersey): Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
No mountains points on offer today, so assuming he finishes the stage, Pogačar is guaranteed at least one day in the polka-dot jersey in the 2025 Tour. He's won the mountains classification outright twice before, too, so don't be surprised if he's leading the ranking for more than just that extra 24 hours, though.
The weather incidentally is dry and warm, expected to reach a maximum of 27ºC in the late afternoon. Winds of up to 10kmh, so shouldn't have too much of an effect.
Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS-Astana) rolls down the start ramp. Stage 5 of the 2025 Tour is officially underway.
There are three interemediate checkpoints:
One of the key early starters of the race is now in action. That's Ivan Romeo (Movistar), the reigning U23 World TT Champion. Definitely a time to watch.
Someone who first put in an appearance in the 1993 Tour de France, in the Pyrenean stage to Andorra won by Oliverio Rincón, is still here cheering on the fans in Caen today.
The fiirst riders are through checkpoint 1 at Cambes-en-plain: Will Barta (Movistar), who ran Primoz Roglič a very close second in a Vuelta a España TT back in the day, is best time with 10:56.
While we're waiting for more early times, for a full preview of today's stage, James Moultrie has taken a deep dive here for Cyclingnews.
Tour de France 2025 stage 5 preview - Caen time trial brings GC battle between Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel into the spotlight
New best time
And Romeo's time for CP 1 has barely had time to go on the top results board before it's been beaten by Australian National TT Champion Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) by 10 seconds.
Romeo currently has the best time for checkpoint 2, (Km 16.4) of 18:50, but considering Plapp has yet to reach there, that may change very soon.
Sure enough, Plapp is 10 seconds up on Romeo at CP2 as well.
Here's a shot of Luke Plapp out on the course...
Romeo is trailing Plapp right now but he's not giving up at all, shooting past Swiss allrounder Sylvain Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who started three minutes ahead of him, at around seven kilometres to go.
First finisher
Sure enough, Romeo storms home with a new best course time of 37:44.
Plapp is into the last kilometre, but it's going to be tight...
Nope, Plapp has shed a lot of time later on. Ten seconds faster than all the previous riders at CP2, but at the finish he's 15 seconds down on Romeo, who remains the stage leader.
Some words from Luke Plapp on Eurosport about his ride: "I flew a bit too close to the sun and got burned, I really just tried to attack it and go out really hard and see how long I could hold on....I just blew a bit towards the end."
A shot of the stage leader
Current European TT Champ Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) is turning in a very strong time, closing in on Plapp to just four seconds at checkpoint 2. If he's timed his effort right, he could be a threat to the top of the leaderboard.
Green jersey Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) rolls out of the start. For the Italian sprinter today is likely simply a day to get through.
Another rider currently out of the course whose main goal will be to get round incident-free and unscathed is Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious). Dead last on stage 1, Martínez bounced back with a vengeance on stage 4 and the French climber gets a lot of cheers as he heads towards the finish.
Affini marks the best time at checkpoint 3, and is 21 seconds up on Plapp there. Could well be the best time at the finish too.
Affini blasts past an earlier starter. It's looking good.
Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) new stage leader
Wow, but here comes Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale). The three times French National TT Champion was four seconds faster than Affini at the first checkpoint.
A DNS today...
Hmm. Four seconds down on Plapp at the first checkpoint, Armirail has shed a further 14 seconds by checkpoint 2. Barring major surprises, it looks like the Frenchman is moving out of the running for the stage win.
UAE lead sports director Joxean Fernández Matxin talks to Eurosport about Pogačar's chances this afternoon. Like everybody else, he tips Evenepoel to be the top favourite, but he's also saying that he think Pogačar can be closer to the Belgian than he was in the Dauphiné equivalent TT, as a result of 'hard work, positioning on the bike and the mentality you need to tackle a Tour de France time trial."
As for the stage 5 course itself, he describes it as technical at the start, more straightforward in the middle, and then technical in the end.
Another DNS today: Émilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies). According to his team, the French sprinter broke his shoulderblade in the stage 3 late pileup.
Jonathan Milan comes home 4:05 down on stage leader Affini. The Lidl-Trek sprinter's priorities lie elsewhere.
Armirail has reversed the time losses in dramatic style, and is just four seconds down on Affini in the closing kilometres. He's definitely in with a shout of the stage lead.
He's now tied on time with Affini at the same point coming into the last kilometre...
But he just misses out. Only 2.47 seconds slower than Affini, who is presumably breathing a big sigh of relief in the hot seat right now.
Here's a shot of the current stage leader passing by some fans
Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), like Armirail with multiple French National Time Trial titles in his palmares, crosses the line. But the former track World Champion and Giro d'Italia breakaway stage winner is a lot further off the pace, 1:53 down
Meanwhile elsewhere on Planet Cycling, stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia Women has just finished...you can read about it here.
Former World TT Champion Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) is out on the course right now, cracking out what looks like a seriously fast pace. In the absence of Filippo Ganna, who crashed out injured, he's likely his team's main man for today.
And there's a big cheer from the crowds for 2025 Giro d'Italia winner Simon Yates (Visma-Lease A Bike), as he starts out of the gate. He was a winner of a Giro TT back in the day in Budapest, but likely taking it more steady here today.
Riders are now leaving at 90 second intervals and will be up until the last 15 start from 1630 onwards, at 2 minute intervals.
Foss' effort is not paying off, as he's nearly a minute down on best time split at Checkpoint 2, still held by early starter Luke Plapp.
Whoever wins today, it'll be from a very different kind of stage to the last one to reach Caen way back in 2006 when it was won by Oscar Freire in a bunch sprint. To his right, green jersey Robbie McEwen, to his left, yellow jersey Tom Boonen.
Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) powers along the course. Back in 2024 Vlasov was Bora's plan 'B' for the Tour, but he had to abandon injured before the Pyrenees and this year, at more than 12 minutes down, he's looking at a 100% support role for GC leader and teammate Primož Roglič.
Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) heads down the ramp in what is the second-last Tour de France time trial of his career. A former British National TT champ, Thomas is a former first week stage winner of a Tour de France time trial back in 2017 when he won a rainsoaked opening race against the clock in Dusseldorf. This time round, though, he'll likely be easing back to save energy for breakaways and team support role further down the line.
Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) is another former Tour stage TT winner currently out on the Caen course. Alaf's lone Grand Tour victory against the clock came during his most serious GC bid at the race, back in 2019 in Pau.
17th best time for Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) at checkpoint 1, 47 seconds down on former teammate Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla).
Warren Barguil (Picnic-PostNL) rolls down the start ramp. The former Tour de France mountains and double stage winner is about to reach his native Brittany, but Wawa is already getting some big cheers from the crowds in the neighbouring region of Normandy.
At the other end of the course, meanwhile, Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike), meanwhile, rolls across the line more than four minutes down on teammate and stage leader Affini.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) pounds through the early kilometres. He has had a fairly lowkey start to the 2025 Tour, but as a former Tour de France time trial winner and National Champion, he's got to be counted as a potential contender for today.
Affini remains in the lead
It's not all noisy crowds out there on the course...
Some interesting comments from former European ITT Champion Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike) out there to Eurosport after completing the course: "We'd expect Tadej (Pogačar) to be up there on a course with so little altitude [gain] that he'll do well with his absolute power, but I have high expectations from Jonas [Vingegaard], he's spent so much time on the TT bike and he did so well in the Dauphiné TT."
He also says that teammates Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson, both key GC figures, were "really in the zone" this morning at the team hotel and the other riders left them well alone. Or as he succinctly put it, "No jokes."
Van Aert is 1:47 down on the best time set by Luke Plapp at the first checkpoint. Likely he's under orders to take things as calmly as possible.
Swiss National TT Champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) rolls across the finish line 1:13 down. Like Van Aert, it seems like he's keeping his powder dry for deeper into the race.
Interesting how the top five on the intermediate time splits have remained unchanged for a very long time now. No disrespect intended to Edoardo Affini's excellent result at the top of the leader board, but it's also true that a lot of the top time trialling names like Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), just crossing the line 2:46 down, are not a factor at all today. This perhaps suggests that given just how tough the second and third weeks are, quite a few important names who aren't on the GC fight are under orders simple to take things as gently as possible in what is - for the modern-day Tour - quite a long opening time trial.
Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) completes the course in 16th place.
As we head into the last 20 starters of the day, here's a reminder of how things look on GC, via FirstCycling
Riders now leaving at two minute intervals, all the way to yellow jersey Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) at 1700 CET.
Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) goes through the second checkpoint (km 16.4) 1:12 down on teammate Luke Plapp. The West Australian GC contender has had a tough start to the Tour after crashing on stage 1 and things are still not looking up yet.
Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is about to start. The Slovenian has five Grand Tour wins in his palmares, most recently the Vuelta a España last year, and has numerous time trial wins on his record as welll. But after his Giro d'Italia crash-out, he's had a muted start to the Tour too, and is nearly 90 seconds down on race leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck). So he will be fighting to get back on terms today.
A first shot of Tadej Pogačar warming up at the start, warming up underneath some water sprays.
Van Aert finishes nearly four minutes down on his teammate Affini, whose chances of a top five result today, at the least, are looking better and better.
Van Aert completes the course
And even as Van Aert finishes, another top Belgian is about to begin...
World Champion and leading favourite Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) begins the time trial.
So much is at stake for Evenepoel in today's race. This is where he not only goes for a stage win, but also where he'll hopefully (from his point of view) make serious inroads into Vingegaard and Evenepoel's overall advantage. Can he take yellow? In just about an hour's time, we'll have a much better idea...
Straight after Evenepoel, it's Joâo Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) who is down the ramp. Touted as a potential GC contender after his Tour de Suisse win, for now he's looking wholly dedicated to teammate Pogacar's cause.
Roglič has already lost 28 seconds at the first checkpoint. This is not looking good for the Slovenian star.
Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) finishes the course 1:14 down on Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike)
Should Evenepoel win today, it'd be the reigning World TT Champ's 21st time trial of his career, and his first in a Grand Tour since the Tour de France last year.
Best Young Rider leader Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), winner of a stage in last year's Tour and second in the Tour de Suisse last month, starts his time trial to enormous cheers.
Evenepoel is three seconds slower than Plapp at the first checkpoint.
That second place won't send alarm bells ringing in the Soudal camp just yet. Plapp made a very strong start and then, as he graphically put it 'flew too close to the sun' and burned out in the second half. Evenepoel, most likely, will be measuring his effort.
Roglič, meanwhile, is 49 seconds down on Plapp at Checkpoint 2 (16.4km). A lot depends on what the other GC contenders do, of course, but he's teetering perilously close to the edge of a real setback.
Now it's Jonas Vingegaard's turn to head down the start ramp.
Vingegaard has already won a time trial this year, of course, back in the Volta ao Algarve, but the big source of motivation today will be how he managed to gain time on Pogačar in the key warmup TT test at the Criterium du Dauphiné.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) starts his time trial.
The World Champion secured the 100th win of his career yesterday at the Tour, so he, too, has his reasons to be feeling motivated in this key 33 kilometre effort against the clock.
Finally Tour de France leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) begins his stage. All riders are now out on the course.
Evenepoel crosses the second time check, eight seconds down on Plapp and four seconds slower than Affini.
Vingegaard goes through the first time check 22 seconds down on Plapp, and 9.5 seconds down on Evenepoel. It's early days, but the Belgian is regaining time on at least one of his key rivals.
Remco Evenepoel during the stage
Pogačar is just a single second slower than Evenepoel at CP 1, so he's 18 seconds up on Vingegaard.
Race leader Van der Poel, the last rider through the final checkpoint, is 30 seconds slower than Luke Plapp. That puts him out of yellow - for now.
Roglič finishes 46 seconds down on Affini, limiting the early damage considerably in the second half of the course.
At intermediate time check number three meanwhile, Evenepoel is now 11 seconds faster than stage finisher, and previous best and stage leader Edoardo Affini. He's en route for a top result for sure.
Vingegaard is 41 seconds down on Evenepoel at km 16.2. He's shipping time steadily on the Belgian.
Pogacar is 12 seconds down on Evenepoel, but he's 18 seconds up on Vinegegaard at checkpoint 2. That's an important gain on his arch-rival.
Evenepoel soars through the final kilometre at a searing pace, taking maximum advantage of each of the corners.
Whatever happens now, this is a stunning ride by Evenepoel...
Evenepoel into the provisional lead.
Van der Poel is more than 1 minute down at the half-way point of the time trial. After three days in the lead, he's out of yellow for sure.
João Almeida crosses the line more than 1:14 down on Evenepoel. Sixth place on the stage for now, but there's still some big names to come...
Vingegaard is over a minute down on Evenepoel, shipping important time on the Belgian. The key question long-term, though, is maybe how much he's losing to Pogačar.
Pogačar out on the course, he could be in yellow this evening
Pogačar seems to be pulling time back a little on Evenepoel, but it may be too much to go for the stage win.
Best Young Rider leader Vauquelin comes home with a time of 37:31, a solid 49 seconds down on Evenepoel and fourth on the stage. He could well remain in the BYR lead tonight as a result.
Tadej Pogačar's gap on Evenepoel is roughly 18 seconds. This is a very powerful performance by the Slovenian, particularly considering how he didn't race so strongly in the Dauphiné equivalent mid-week TT - and whom he's racing against today.
Vingegaard is riding flawlessly, clearly familiar with the course and comfortable on his TT bike, but he just isn't producing the same kind of power as Pogačar and Evenepoel today.
Jonas Vingegaard finishes 1:21 down on Evenepoel.
Meanwhile Pogačar almost overcooks a corner but stays in control. That was close.
Pogačar crosses the line 16 seconds down on Evenepoel, but 1-05 up on Vingegaard. A big step forward too for the Slovenian.
It's a virtual certainty that Pogačar will be returning to the yellow jersey this evening for the first time this year.
Van der Poel crosses the line 1:43 down on Evenepoel.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) has won stage 5 of the Tour de France, and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is the new race leader
A day after taking his 100th career win in Rouen, Pogačar is back in yellow. If there were any lingering doubts about his status as top favourite, they've shrunk quite a bit more now.
Here's the stage classification, courtesy of FirstCycling
In a nutshell: Evenepoel more than lived up to expectations, Pogačar was considerably better than expected and Vingegaard has taken a step backwards - but he's far from out of the fight.
Some first words from the stage winner, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep): "You never know because big guys like [longstanding leader] Edoardo [Affini], they can do these kinds of courses very well. Also they can save a little bit more in the finals like yesterday so I knew I had a good chance, but the legs were there, and everything has to go as the plan is."
"In the end I think it was pretty good, I didn't really feel like I could go any faster and happy too with this second stage win for our team [after Merlier on stage 3], it's really nice."
"I kind of pushed steady, harder on the uphills than the downhills of course, but my strongest point was keeping my pace in the end as in the first ten ks. We saw I was still gaining time in the last eight kilometres so I paced it perfectly."
No yellow jersey for Evenepoel, whose dream result would have been a first ever maillot jaune, but a knock-out performance nonetheless.
A shot of Mathieu van der Poel as he reaches the line and salutes the crowd, knowing his time in yellow is over.
Our full race report of what has proved an even more dramatic stage 5 than expected is right here:
Tour de France stage 5: Remco Evenepoel uses pure power to win individual time trial while Tadej Pogačar moves into yellow jersey
And there's the top 10 on the GC standings, with some considerable changes...
Some initial thoughts:-
- Pogačar's stunning time trial puts him into the overall lead, a day later than in 2024 and with - unlike last year - all the climbing to come. Having gained time on everybody bar key question now is a) will he try and defend the lead, having taken it so early and b) will he be as strong in the mountains as he was in the Dauphiné/last year's Tour/last year's Giro.
- Remco Evenepoel may not have taken yellow but his options on GC are more than intact, and his candidature for the podium at least is looking good.
And here is Pogačar back in yellow...
Pogačar has also taken over from Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) at the head of the points ranking, although given Milan drops to second and Pogačar will be in yellow, the Italian will still be wearing the same green jersey tomorrow.
While Pogačar remains in the polka dot jersey (no points on offer today), there's a new face leading the Best Young Rider's competition, although he did win the ranking outright last year...
Visma-Lease a Bike, incidentally, are still leading the teams classification.
Visma-Lease a Bike's sports director Grischa Niermann was the one facing the press for Jonas Vingegaard at the team bus at the stage finish, but when asked if he had an explanation for the team's results, he answered simply "No, I don't have an explanation."
Regarding Vingegaard, "before the time trial everything was good. In the time trial we already heard after eight kilometres he was already eight seconds down on Remco and he just lost time all the way through the whole TT."
"I haven't spoken to him yet but of course today we hoped for more."
And some quotes from the new race leader: "I'm super-happy with how I raced today, to be just 16 seconds behind the Olympic [TT] Champion, World [TT] Champion and probably the best time triallist in the world. So I'm happy with second, and I gained time in the GC, I lost a bit to Remco. It's a very good day and I'm just happy we can focus on the next days and keep the ball rolling. I'm happy with all these jerseys [as leader] but the most important thing is to have it in Paris."
And finally, what's in store for tomorrow? Thursday's stage from Bayeaux to Vire Normandei is both long (201.5 kilometres) and difficult, with nearly 3,000 metres of climbing. It also has a similarly punchy finale to stage 4, with a Cat.4 ascent, the Côte de Vaudry (1.2 km at 7.1%) peaking out at five kilometres from another uphill, uncategorized, finish.
That just about wraps it up for today's live coverage, but we'll be back again tomorrow with another live report. Plus there will be the usual analysis, on-the-ground news and further updates from our reporters on the ground.
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