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Simon Clarke (right)
Photo: GONZALO FUENTES / REUTERS
The Australian professional cyclist Simon Clarke has won the fifth stage of the 109th Tour de France.
From a breakaway group of five riders, the rider from the Israel-Premier Tech team had the most energy reserves over the last kilometer and won ahead of Dutchman Taco van der Hoorn after a photo finish.
Edvard Boasson Hagen from Norway took third place.
The stage over 157 kilometers from Lille to Arenberg presented the peloton with a dreaded challenge.
A total of eleven cobblestone passages over a total of 19 kilometers had to be mastered.
This not only favored the escape attempt by the outliers, but also had consequences for the classification drivers-and especially for the Jumbo-Visma team: Only the overall leading Wout van Aert fell and had to work hard to work back on the field.
Then a botched wheel change also cost climber Jonas Vingegaard a lot of time, this time van Aert slipped into the role of helper himself.
Roglič could already have lost the tour
In the end, fellow favorite Primož Roglič also stumbled – the Slovenian had to let go and lost several minutes not only to the day's winner, but also to his compatriot Tadej Pogačar from the UAE Team Emirates.
The Tour winner of 2020 and 2021 presented himself the strongest of the favorites for the overall ranking and, together with the Belgian Jesper Stuyven, even attacked the escapees towards the end of the stage.
Pogačar did not achieve this, but he still made up valuable seconds in the classification.
There, van Aert was able to just about defend the yellow jersey, the Belgian still has 13 seconds ahead of the American Neilson Powless, who also belonged to the breakaway group.
Pogačar is the best-placed tour specialist with just 19 seconds on the Maillot Jaune.
Vingegaard is 40 seconds back, cementing his Jumbo-Visma captaincy claim over Roglič, who is almost two minutes behind.
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