LARUNS (AFP) – Australian Jai Hindley crossed the line alone to win stage five of the Tour de France on Wednesday to take the overall leader’s yellow jersey as defending champion Jonas Vingegaard won a tactical battle with key rival Tadej Pogacar.
Hindley’s feat however was overshadowed by Vingegaard’s show of class as the Dane pulled off a major coup on the final mountain to carve a 53-second advantage over Pogacar in the overall standings.
The anticipated duel between the pair has been the main focus on the Tour so far, but now Bora-Hansgrohe rider Hindley, the 2022 Giro d’Italia winner, has stolen some of that thunder.
After joining an early escape as the peloton left Pau, the gateway to the Pyrenees, at frantic speed, Hindley eventually shook off his breakaway rivals on the final Col de Marie Blanque climb.
At the village of Laruns the 27-year-old raised his arms to the sky and finished 32 seconds ahead of Italy’s Giulio Ciccone and Austrian Felix Gall with Vingegaard fifth at 34sec.
Ciccone climbed to third in the overall with his second place. The Italian held the yellow jersey briefly in 2019 after a breakaway on the Planche des Belles Filles climb.
The stage winner said he had been ready should an opportunity arise on this first relatively benign foray into the mountains.
Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma stunned the UAE Team when Wout Van Aert dropped back from an early break and led Vingegaard uphill with an impressive 500m pull.
Jumbo climber Sepp Kuss then took the relay until he too peeled away before Vingegaard broke free and put the hammer down over the remaining 15km to the finish line.
Vingegaard expressed surprise at how Pogacar struggled.
Meanwhile UAE Team rider Pogacar, the 2020 and 2021 champion, was left isolated as overnight leader Adam Yates appeared unable to help in the chase.
On Thursday, trademark Tour climbs Col d’Aspin and Col du Tourmalet will mark out stage six as the toughest test so far with further tremors expected on the second mountain day over 145km from Tarbes to Cauterets-Cambasque.
But those two ascents make only 30km and are only part of the story with a 16km slog to a summit finish coming after an epic descent from the 2,115-metre altitude Tourmalet.