Soudal Quick-Step’s Belgian moves one day closer to the first individual time trial of the race.
Remco Evenepoel spent a relatively quiet day in the Tour de France white jersey, which he is wearing since the end of the second stage, as the peloton embarked on a 177.2km journey from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint Vulbas. A breakaway formed late into the day, and with only two riders being part of it, the peloton had no problems reeling it in.
Rain made things a bit more complicated in the final hour of racing, forcing the teams to slow down before picking up the pace again inside the last ten kilometers, when the lead-out trains began making their presence felt at the front. As expected, stage five came down to a bunch sprint, won by Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan), who wrote history on the roads of the Tour de France with his 35th victory at the race. Remco finished safely in the peloton and kept the lead in the white jersey classification, where he currently has a 25-second buffer.
“It was a bit stressful in the last 40 kilometers when it started to rain, but we managed things well and we can be content with our day, as it was pretty straightforward. We hope things will continue like this for us in the next stages. I also want to congratulate Mark on his record, we were teammates for a couple of years and it’s pretty special to witness his achievement from the bunch”, Evenepoel said after the stage.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
