Stage 5 Tour de France Summary: Dominant Victories

Stage 5 of the Tour de France was a 30-kilometer circular time trial that started and ended in Cannes. Stage 5 was a huge victory for overall favorite Tadej Pogacar. Remco Evenepoel, the reigning World and Olympic time trial champion, won the stage and, as a result, he is now wearing the best young rider’s white jersey.

Overall, second pick Jonas Vingegaard had a terrible time trial in Stage 5 and is now over a minute back in the overall standings. This time trial shook up the standings, and Pogacar is doing something only five people have done before. Do you think Vingegaard has a chance to win the overall title?

Stage 5 Of the Tour de France Summary

Stage 5 of the Tour de France shook up the overall standings in a way that may determine the final results of the three-week race.  The stage was a time trial that was won by Evenepoel, the World and Olympic time trial champion. It was not surprising that he won the stage, but it was surprising that he won the stage in a dominant performance. The second finisher in stage 5 was Pogacar. The best bicycle rider on the planet did so well that he now wears the green, polka dot, and yellow jerseys. He is only the fifth person in history to wear three jerseys in the Tour de France simultaneously.

Edoardo Affini is an Italian time trial specialist who came in third in this stage. The next two finishers in stage 5 were both from the host country of France. This is, no doubt, to the delight of French citizens. Bruno Armirail was fourth in the stage, and a youngster, Kevin Vauquelin, was fifth. Vauquelin would be wearing the best young rider’s white jersey if it were not for Evenepoel. 

There are two more results from stage 5 that are worth noting. First, Mathieu van der Poel lost his yellow jersey to the dominant Pogacar. van der Poel rode well in the time trial.  He ended up 1:44 back from Evenepoel. Vingegaard finished 1:21 behind Evenepoel. This was a terrible performance, and the favorite plummeted to fourth overall, 1:13 behind Pogacar. He now has a bunch of work to do in the coming mountain stages.

Categorized Climbs

With a stage with a mountain climb looming, it might be good to review the climb categorization criteria of the organizers of the Tour de France. The categorization schema is pretty simple, but very important, as the big mountain usually determines who wins the race overall. That may not be the case this year as the current wearer of the yellow jersey may not relinquish it.

Mountain climbs in the Tour de France are categorized in terms of difficulty by the organizers of the Tour from 5 to 1. There is a category that is more difficult than a category 1 climb. Namely, a climb that is ‘beyond classification,’ or Hors Catégorie. Those climbs are diabolical and denoted by an HC. On these grueling climbs, only a select group of the top bike riders is likely to be present.

Conclusion

The stage 5 race of this year’s Tour de France was a placement-determining individual time trial. Tomorrow’s stage 6 is the second-longest stage of the tour. The torturous stage has six climbs and is expected to take as long as the television coverage, which begins at 6 AM Eastern time. The mountain stages usually determine the overall race results, but this year they may not. Pogacar is simply too dominant.