The Australian rider attacked at the right moment in the ascent of the Col de Marie Blanque to seek victory.
The king of the first mountain stage is him. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the 5th stage of the Tour de France, arriving in Laruns, Wednesday July 5. Present in the first breakaway of the day, never too far from the lead, the Australian who discovers the Tour de France placed a very good attack in the climb of the Marie Blanque pass, 20 km from the finish, to s soar to victory. He finished ahead of Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Félix Gall (AG2R-Citroën). Thanks to this victory, his first success on the roads of the Tour, the Australian takes the overall leader’s tunic. Fifth at the finish, Jonas Vingegaard struck a first blow by dropping Tadej Pogacar on the last ascent of the day.
He knew how to seize the opportunity. Legs at the front, Jai Hindley started alone in the lead, 19 km from the finish, two kilometers from the top of the Col de Marie Blanque (1st category), the last difficulty of the day, dropping Félix Gall (AG2R -Citroën), the only one who had managed to follow him so far. Very serious in the descent, the Australian resisted the return of his pursuers, led by Jonas Vingegaard, to offer himself a first big victory in the Tour de France.
Before this stunt, he had already shown himself to be solid in the counter group on the first climbs of the day, the Col de Soudet (non-category) and the Col de l’Ichère (3rd category). All after having escaped the vigilance of the peloton and found himself in the morning breakaway, despite his position in the general classification (7th at 22 seconds at the start of the stage).
Jonas Vingegaard’s first power grab
For the fight between the favorites, the highly anticipated climb of the Marie Blanque pass also settled everything. Under the impetus of the UAE-Emirates team, then the Jumbo-Visma, the peloton of favorites shrank by elimination, notably losing the yellow jersey Adam Yates 20 km from the finish in Laruns. While Tadej Pogacar had lost all his teammates, Jonas Vingegaard took the opportunity to place an attack that left the Slovenian in his saddle, unable to follow. Launched in pursuit of Jai Hindley, the Dane, outgoing winner, relegated his main competitor to almost a minute, in the first coup of this start of the Tour. First Frenchman on arrival, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) arrived with Tadej Pogacar, after having also been dropped in the climb of Marie Blanque.
At the end of this turbulent stage, marked by numerous attacks from kilometer 0, the general classification is upset. Jai Hindley takes the lead, 47 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard, the new runner-up. Second on the line at Laruns, Giulio Ciccone climbed onto the podium, 1’03” from the Australian. Tadej Pogacar is relegated to 6th position (+1’40”).