Tour de France 2016: Full Standings and Highlights After Stage 5 Results
BMC Racing’s Greg Van Avermaet seized both victory and the yellow jersey in Stage 5 of the 2016 Tour de France on Wednesday.
The Belgian rider was part of an early break, and over a series of late climbs, he showed exceptional durability to attack Thomas De Gendt with 17 kilometres to go, securing what was eventually a comfortable triumph over his compatriot; Tinkoff’s Rafal Majka took third place.
Of the general classification contenders, it was a bad day for Vincenzo Nibali, who was left trailing on the ascent to Pas de Peyrol and unable to recover. Both Team Sky man Chris Froome and Movistar’s Nairo Quintana remain in good shape, as their squads set a strong pace on the aforementioned climb to fracture the peloton.
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Sky Sports Cycling posted the results of the stage and the updated standings in the race for the maillot jaune:
Van Avermaet Rides into Yellow
After some brief attacks early on, the first break to stick was nine strong, and they gradually put some distance between themselves and the peloton.
For a while, the group did work well together, building up a significant gap. As the stage wore on, the fluidity started to seep away from the leaders, though, with Van Avermaet, De Gendt and Andriy Grivko moving clear at the front.
They moved two minutes ahead of the chasing group, and the peloton seemed unfazed by the move, falling a whopping 15 minutes behind at one point. The letourdata Twitter feed summed up the situation with some ascents looming:
With no great urgency from the peloton, it became clear that one of the nine breakaway riders was going to be victorious on the way into Le Lioran, with plenty of strong climbers at the front of the field.
It meant any hopes Julian Alaphilippe or Alejandro Valverde had of finishing the day in yellow were disappearing down the road, with the gap to the breakaway holding and some big-time gaps opening up. As noted here, there were riders who had experience making a surge from the peloton stick too, per the event's Twitter feed:
As the competitors sought to scale the Category 2 climb to Pas de Peyrol, the gap between the front threesome and the chasers widened, although a peloton driven by Team Sky and Movistar was bringing the field closer together.
After the summit, there was a testing descent to come, as relayed by former rider Michael Rasmussen, who was waiting for the leaders to blitz past:
Just two were at the front at the top, though, as Grivko was dropped by the Belgian pair, while the chasers also began to break up on the climb. The man in the yellow jersey at the start of the day, Peter Sagan, was left behind at this juncture too, as was former winner Nibali as the pace began to pick up.
After the descent, Van Avermaet attacked from second and quickly put some distance between himself and De Gendt, who had no response, ultimately giving up on the stage win.
The 31-year-old, who won on the tour last year, was eventually able to enjoy the final moments of the race; here is the moment the BMC man crossed the line to take the win:
"It feels great. It’s a dream come true," said Van Avermaet after his win, per Cycling News. "I was happy with the stage win last year but now to have a stage win and the yellow jersey, it’s once in a lifetime and I’m going enjoy it as much as possible tomorrow."
Late on in the stage, there were a few small attacks from the GC contenders, the most notable coming from Romain Bardet. However, they were quickly extinguished, as Quintana and Froome were able to keep in touch; Alberto Contador did drop off late on, though, adding another disappointing chapter to his miserable tour.
Thursday is likely to be a leisurely day for the GC riders, with the first of three stages in the Pyrenees to start on Friday with a punishing climb to negotiate into Col d’Aspin. Stage 6 is a lumpy profile and one that could favour another bold breakaway, although it will most likely end in another sprint finish, as most of the ascents aren’t too harsh.
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