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Slovakian Peter Sagan won the fifth stage of the Tour de France, a 175.5-km bumpy ride from St Die des Vosges on Wednesday.
The three-time world champion beat Belgian Wout van Aert and Italian Matteo Trentin in a sprint finish. France’s Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The overall contenders had a quiet day in the peloton ahead of Thursday’s sixth stage, a 160.5-km ride from Mulhouse ending at the top of La Planche des Belles Filles.
Click on stage 5 to refresh the live tracker
Race preview
Christian Prudhomme, the race director, didn’t say it overtly, but when his team designed this particular Tour de France route, they did so with a goal in mind to disrupt Team Sky’s smothering rhythm. Sky had spent the last decade sitting on the front of the peloton in formation eating up the road kilometre by kilometre, day by day, carrying their strongest rider to the podium in Paris on a gilded yellow cushion, and their methodical approach garnered few fans in cycling’s heartlands.
One French journalist speaking to The Independent last summer compared them to Real Madrid winning the Champions League three years in a row. “They have the best players, the best riders… I’m bored,” he said. In L’Equipe Sky were described as “the snake with two heads”, referring to the dominance of Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome. Race organisers ASO came under pressure to take away Sky’s certainty and make the race more unpredictable.
“Our desire is not to make things harder but more varied,” Prudhomme said at the 2019 Tour’s unveiling. “There will be less hors catégorie cols [the most severe climbs] than in previous years but there will be more second category climbs. There will be more medium mountains, where the race is harder to control, and we take full responsibility for that decision.”
In theory it makes sense, and if ever there was a stage to test that new ethos it is stage five from Saint-die-des-Vosges to Colmar: 175.5km of rolling hills featuring four tough categorised climbs, two of which stand back-to-back in the final 40km. It is a day that the general classification players like Team Ineos (now re-badged from Sky) hope is uneventful, but which could easily slip out of their grasp and into the lap of the gods.
The flat-ish start invites a breakaway and there is likely to be an almighty scrap for the chance to be among the chosen escapees. The peloton could take it easy and let them go, although there are plenty of puncheurs who can profit on a technical finish like this one, which rushes up and down two climbs on route to the finish at Colmar, and who might be unwilling to simply hand over the stage to the breakers.
Stage-by-stage guide to the 2019 Tour de France
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The pure sprinters like stage-four winner Elia Viviani are likely to find this one too hard going, which means if Peter Sagan is still in contention near the final summit he will be a huge favourite to win the stage as the fastest man left. But he will likely falter somewhere along the way when the road tilts up; the winner will need a climbing engine combined with skilful descending abilities and a long kick to the finish.
The man in polka dots, Tim Wellens, has said he is targeting a win here while one-day specialists like Greg van Avermaet and the man in yellow, Julian Alaphilippe, are the type of riders who could triumph. Alaphilippe’s priority will be to retain the yellow jersey, but don’t rule out another stunning solo burst that earned him an impressive victory on stage three.
Yet if the breakaway is a few minutes clear coming into the final two climbs, while the peloton begins shedding stragglers, they may stay clear from the reduced bunch and the winner will come from the break. Getting in there in the first place will be half the challenge.
Five contenders
Julian Alaphilippe – He is the No1 road racer in the world for a reason, and could repeat his display on stage three. ****
Greg van Avermaet – The Olympic champion is targeting stage wins and this route suits his punchy style. ***
Thomas de Gendt – A connoisseur of the breakaway who could profit if the break stays away. **
Tim Wellens – The man wearing the polka dots will be keen to get to the front of the race and add to his King of the Mountains points haul. **
Peter Sagan – If the pace is a little slow and he copes with the climbs, Sagan has the speed to win a reduced bunch sprint. *
Hello! Welcome along to live coverage from the Tour de France and what is a challenging stage five. There are four categorised climbs including two in the final 40km before a flat run into the finish at Colmar. It is all set up for a big breakaway, but who will get in it? There will be an almighty fight to do that from the off...
It’s been a chaotic start this afternoon, with everyone desperate to get in the breakaway, which realistically will be the best way to win the stage. Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Jan Tratnik (Bahrain Merida) and Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) are the latest to try and escape, and De Gendt has been the most active of anyone. As ever.
Four riders appear to have finally made a move stick, and among them is Tim Wellens, the man in the polka dots who admitted yesterday that he has had his eye on this stage.
The four out in front: Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Mads Schmidt Wurtz (Katusha Alpecin), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Simon Clarke (EF Education-First).
135km to go: The four out in front have a lead of nearly two minutes, which suggests the peloton is still chugging along at a fair pace and is reluctant let them get too far down the road. If this quartet want to be in with a chance of winning the stage they are going to have to work hard for it.
This is interesting:Bora-Hansgrohe are setting the pace on the front trying to keep the breakers in touching distance. They have the talented German Max Schachmann in their number and might be trying to put him in a strong position, but might they also have ambitions for Peter Sagan? This is a tough stage but if Sagan can be delivered at the finish in the leading group, he will have a strong chance of winning it.
Here's the leading quartet, Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Mads Schmidt Wurtz (Katusha Alpecin), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Simon Clarke (EF Education-First), who have now built a lead of more than two minutes from the rest.
An average of 46kph for a lumpy start like that which included a category three climb is quite some pace. It will be interesting to see if they can keep this up.
105km to go: The breakaway has now had it's lead cut back to around one and a half minutes as they approach the day's intermediate sprint. Tim Wellens, by the way, swept up the majority of King of the Mountains points on the first climb of the day to tighten his grip on the polka dots.
90km to go: Back in the peloton, Elia Viviani sprints to reach the intermediate sprint marker before the rest. He is swiftly gathering points and it looks like Peter Sagan is going to have a serious challenger for the green jersey this year, which is great to see.
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