Pogacar, the beautiful fright
The Yellow Jersey had a big scare this Wednesday 50 kilometers from Saint-Vulbas. When the peloton split into two parts approaching a small central reservation, Tadej Pogacar narrowly avoided a road sign with his left shoulder and the fall that then affected the peloton. “I think you saw that I had good riding techniques,” said the Slovenian at the finish. And my reaction time allowed me to avoid this fall.” Pogacar then calmly got back up at the time of the final sprint.
Vingegaard sans stress, Laporte chute
Visma-Lease a bike had an almost trouble-free day on stage 5. At the start, the idea was to protect Jonas Vingegaard before thinking about a sprint for Wout Van Aert in Saint-Vulbas. The Dutchmen positioned themselves at the front of the peloton when the rain appeared, 50 kilometres from the finish, just in case. Then Christophe Laporte fell 25 kilometres after being hindered by his team-mate Tiesj Benoot, without serious injury, and the Frenchman was able to take Vingegaard on his luggage rack to the end. Van Aert did not sprint.
Evenepoel remained calm
A sprint day after a very difficult first stage in the mountains, synonymous with a very quiet day for Remco Evenepoel who complied with it with good grace. No major worries to report for the Belgian, none of whose teammates took part in the final sprint in Saint-Vulbas. The second in the general classification is already looking towards Friday and the time trial in the vineyards of Burgundy. In good form since the start of the Tour, he intends to hit hard in the time trial.
Roglic, a day without incident
As expected, after a particularly grueling first mountain stage, Primoz Roglic had a rather quiet day in the peloton between Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and Saint-Vulbas. The Red Bull Bora leader was able to avoid the few pitfalls on the course, such as the numerous central reservations that gave Tadej Pogacar (UAE) the cold sweats.
As his team did not participate in the final sprint at all, Roglic finished the stage in 53rd place, nice and warm in the middle of his teammates Marco Haller (48th), Jai Hindley (51st), Aleksandr Vlasov (52nd) and Dany van Poppel (58th). The Slovenian remains 5th in the general classification, 1’14 behind his compatriot Pogacar.
