The Tour de France favorites had planned to take stock after the 5th stage, full of cobblestones.
At 2637 km from Paris, the photograph does not harbor artistic blur.
Tadej Pogacar emerges with clarity.
Very comfortable in the arteries of Copenhagen glistening in the rain (1st stage), then twirling in the bumpy and dusty paths leading to Arenberg, the Slovenian virtuoso has escaped the main pitfalls and assumes his role as favorite without difficulty.
In the dust and the madness of an uncontrollable stage, Tadej Pogacar, smooth-faced and pedaled supplely, escaped mechanical problems and falls and sowed discord.
The formidable Jumbo-Visma team which had imagined plans on the cobblestones fell apart, tangled up in an annoying series of setbacks.
Scattered strike force.
To discover
The general classification of the Tour de France
Tour de France 2022: discover the map and the route of the next edition
36 km from the finish, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, victim of a puncture, found himself stuck in the heart of a funny episode.
He successively borrowed the bikes of two teammates, mounts on which he was perched too high to attack the last cobbled sections.
Caught in a fall, Primoz Roglic struggled away from the group… Jumbo-Visma who, on Tuesday, had scored points and spirits during the 4th stage arriving in Calais, saw the seconds fall like violent hammer blows.
Before managing in extremis to save face behind the back of the Australian Simon Clarke who, at 35, won the greatest success of his career, the first on the Tour of his Israel-Premier Tech formation (“
To be honest , I didn't feel capable of winning, cobblestones are not my specialty
").
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Wout van Aert, who fell during the stage, keeps his yellow jersey (13 seconds ahead of the American Neilson Powless).
Groggy, after having spent his day trying to patch up a totally crazy scenario, the Belgian admitted:
“It was a big surprise when I learned that I was staying in yellow.
It was not a good day.
We fought at the back when we wanted to fight at the front… But we proved that we could work hard even when the circumstances were unfavourable
.
»
A grueling chase
The grueling chase will leave its mark.
Physical and mental.
In the duel announced against Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard lost only 13 seconds (like the British Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates, the Colombian Daniel Martinez, the Russian Alexandr Vlasov, the French David Gaudu and Romain Bardet) but left many forces .
After his fall, Primoz Roglic saw 2 minutes and 8 seconds slip by.
Last year, the Slovenian who fell during the 3rd stage of the Tour, had given up before the start of the 9th stage.
This year, he suffers from a dislocated shoulder…
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Tour de France: the great breath of the North
Fear of tomorrow has long tied up the race.
Tadej Pogacar took advantage of the cobblestones attacked with audacity at the head of the peloton to remind his rivals that he feared nothing and no one.
His gaze will now calmly wander to the first summit at La Planche des Belles-Filles, this Friday.
The Tour has turned the page on the first part of the race described as tricky by all the players.
Braked, without falling during the 2nd stage, the defending champion who had hit a barrier left only a little varnish and a few scratches in the episode.
Others have come out dented from a nightmarish day spent on an uncomfortable carpet of dust and have already seen part of their illusions fly away...
Classification of the 5th stage (Lille-Arenberg; 153.7 km):
1. Simon Clarke (Aus/ISR) the 157 km in 3 h 13'35'';
2. van der Hoorn (PB/INT), same time;
3. Boasson Hagen (Nor/TOT) at 2'';
4. Powerless (EU/EF1) at 4'';
5. Cort Nielsen (Dan/EF1) at 30'';
6. Stuyven (Bel / TRE) at 51'';
7.Pogacar (Slo/UAE), same time;…
General classification:
1. Wout van Aert (Bel / Jumbo) 4:17:22 p.m.;
2. Powless (EU/EF1) at 13'';
3. Boasson Hagen (Nor/TOT) at 14'';
4. Pogacar (Slo/UAE) at 19'';
5. Lampaert (Bel/DEC) at 25'';…
6th stage, this Thursday:
Binche-Longwy (219.9 km).
