2023-07-05 17:32:07
The Australian from Bora-Hansgrohe took off on Wednesday July 5 in the Marie-Blanque pass to pick up his first stage success on the Grande Boucle and first place in the general classification. Behind him, Jonas Vingegaard impressed and won a round in his duel with Tadej Pogacar.
A first mountain stage on the Tour de France always has a particular smell: that of powder. That disputed this Wednesday, July 5 between Pau and Laruns did not disappoint: it saw the yellow jersey change shoulders and the first muscular explanation between favorites. Australian Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) took first place in the general classification after winning the stage alone. The winner of the Giro 2022 is 47 seconds ahead of one of the two big favorites, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). The Dane, who this morning was 11 seconds behind his rival Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), is now ahead of the Slovenian for almost a minute. A huge payout after less than a week of racing.
It all came down to the Col de Marie-Blanque, the last difficulty of the day. Jai Hindley set off with the Austrian Félix Gall (AG2R-Citroën) on his steepest gradients, pulling himself out of a group of survivors of the wide breakaway which led to the start of the stage. That is 35 riders with very different profiles: candidates for stage victory (Haig, Jorgenson, Gall…), lieutenants of the favorites (Laporte and Benoot for Vingegaard, Großschartner and Soler for Pogacar), threats for the general classification ( Hindley, Buchmann, Ciccone) and Wout van Aert. It is not yet today that the Belgian, unusually weaned from victories, will have won. The last slope was too hard.
On the other hand, it served as a springboard for the winner of the day, who got rid of Gall in his last kilometers before spinning like the wind on the descent to Laruns. The coast of Marie-Blanque will also have allowed a great skimming in the group of favorites. She will have seen the wearer of the yellow jersey, Adam Yates, fold his wings. Then the Jumbo isolate Pogacar, with a little air of a remake of the Granon 2022. Finally, it made a perfect launch pad for Jonas Vingegaard, whose takeoff came to reassure us about European space capabilities after the scrapping of Ariane 5. Tadej Pogacar tried to follow against time, but he had to face the facts: Vingegaard is currently much stronger than him when the road rises.
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