Published on : 30/06/2021 – 18:28
The defending champion Tadej Pogacar struck a blow by winning the 5th stage of the Tour de France which was contested in the form of an individual time trial. The other good performance of the day was that of Mathieu van der Poel who finished 5th on the stage, which allows him to keep his yellow tunic for only 8 seconds.
A new time for Tadej Pogacar: the outgoing winner of the Tour de France won the time trial of the 5th stage, Wednesday June 30, in Laval, where the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel narrowly retained the yellow jersey.
Tadej Pogacar (UAE), the big winner of the day among the favorites, delivered a high level performance in this time. He beat the Swiss Stefan Kung (FDJ) and the Danish Jonas Vingegaard (Visma) at the end of the 27.2 km time trial between Changé and Laval, in which Julian Alaphilippe took 14th place, 1 min 11 sec from Pogacar.
The defending champion has erased most of his delay to get closer to 8 seconds from Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin) according to a first timekeeping.
To win the stage, Pogacar beat Swiss Stefan Küng by 19 seconds and Dane Jonas Vingegaard by 27 seconds. Van der Poel finished 5th at 31 seconds.
Pogacar, who had overthrown the Tour last year in the time trial at La Planche des Belles Filles, took time from all his direct rivals for the general classification at the end of the 27.2 kilometers.
The Slovenian Primoz Roglic gave him 44 seconds, the French Julian Alaphilippe 1 min 11 sec and the Briton Geraint Thomas 1 min 18 sec, according to a provisional ranking.
Winner for the ninth time this season, Pogacar, 22, has removed his fourth stage in the Tour in which he is participating for the second time.
>> To read: Favorites and outsiders of the Tour de France 2021: who will win the yellow jersey?
Other candidates in the general classification, the Colombian Rigoberto Uran dropped 1 min 08 sec compared to Pogacar and the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz 1 min 43 sec.
Thursday, the route of the 6th stage, 160 kilometers long, bodes well for a sprint in Châteauroux, with 1,600 meters of straight line to finish.
With AFP
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