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After two hilly routes in Spanish Basque Country and Jasper Philipsen’s two sprint wins in the French Basque Country, the serious yellow jersey contenders should come to the fore over the next two days, and we might find out a little more about the destiny of this year’s Tour de France crown.
Stage five’s 163km route from Pau to Laruns is flat for the first 70km, but then comes the first hors categorie climb of this year’s race, the Col du Soudet (15.2km at 7.2%). It is a long and gruelling drag to the top, and we can expect plenty in the peloton to get dropped here as the leaders crank up the pace.
It could well present the first head-to-head between the two favourites – two-time winner Tadej Pogacar and reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard – in what promises to be an intriguing stage
Follow all the latest updates from stage five below:
75km to go – Gall launches attack to collect maximum King of the Mountain points
Just as quickly as the lead group is brought together and Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citroën) launches an attack. Jai Hindley lets him go and the Austrian will summit the Col de Soudet first and should take the polka-dot jersey off Neilson Powless at the end of this stage.
Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) crosses in second to take 15 points with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) third taking 12 points.
The visibility is terrible at the top of the climb and real caution will be needed especially from the peloton.
Ben Fleming5 July 2023 14:37
77km to go – leaders caught
Finally, the leaders in Van Aert and Campenaerts are caught. There is now a 25-man group in the lead with Jai Hindley the main GC contender amongst them – they have just 2km to the top of the Col de Soudet.
From there, it’s three minutes back to the peloton.
Ben Fleming5 July 2023 14:32
78km to go
The leading two continue to maintain their slender lead over the first chasing pack but a few are beginning to fall out of that. One is Pedersen but another, more intriguingly, is Marc Soler. However, it appears that the Team UAE rider is merely following team orders and waiting for the peloton.
Perhaps a sign that they are getting a bit concerned by the lead that the first chasing group have over them and Soler will no doubt be asked to do some of the heavy lifting involved to get them back closer to them.
Ben Fleming5 July 2023 14:30
83km to go – Pedersen dropped
The Dane decided enough is enough for him and he drops out of the leading back and falls back to the first chasing group which is fronted by Lidl-Trek’s Juanpe Lopez. Van Aert and Campenaerts still have a lead of just over 20 seconds from them but their chasing group is moving nicely.
The peloton is still being headed up by Team UAE Emirates and Matteo Trentin but they are now over three minutes back from the leading pair.
Ben Fleming5 July 2023 14:14
87km to go – first chasing group closes gap
Remi Cavagna and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) have taken to the front of the first chasing group who are behind our leading three. The pace increases immediately and there’s clearly a desire to close that gap which is now down to around 30 seconds.
Ben Fleming5 July 2023 14:03
95km to go
Behind the three leaders, we have a first chasing group of 33 riders. Here is the full list of those:
Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma), Felix Grosschartner (UAE), Marc Soler (UAE), Omar Fraile (Ineos), Dani Martínez (Ineos), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Esteban Chaves (EF), Rigoberto Uran (EF), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep), Remi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Juanpe López (Lidl-Trek), Berthet (AG2R), Felix Gall (Ag2R), Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Gregor Muhlberger (Movistar), Chris Hamilton (DSM), Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Christopher Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AIUIa), Anthony Delaplace (Arkea-Samsic), Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny), Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan), Torstein Traen (Uno-X), Mathieu Burgaudeau (Total-Energies).
Ben Fleming5 July 2023 13:47
99km to go
The front three (Van Aert, Pedersen and Campenaerts) have over a minute ahead of the second breakaway group – they now have under 100km to go.
Still no real effort from Pogacar and Team UAE in the peloton to get up to Jai Hindley in that second breakaway group. Will they launch an attack later on the climbs or are they happy to lose the yellow jersey for now?
Ben Fleming5 July 2023 13:44
105km to go – Col de Soudet upcoming
Coquard drops back to the second breakaway group leaving just Van Aert, Pedersen and Campenaerts in the lead. They have a 35-second advantage over that bigger breakaway group and are more than 2 mins 30 secs ahead of the peloton.
The lead riders are now about 15km away from the foot of today’s first climb, the Col de Soudet. It’s over 15km at an average gradient of 7% and the first proper mountain and all-category climb of this year’s Tour.
Ben Fleming5 July 2023 13:35
112km – Coquard takes maximum points in the sprint
The Cofidis rider gets the better of Mads Pedersen in the intermediate sprint to take the maximum 20 points on offer and move second in the green jersey standings.
Pedersen takes 17 while Wan Aert and Campenaerts take 15 and 13 points respectively.
Ben Fleming5 July 2023 13:26
115km to go – Intermediate sprint upcoming
The Lanne-en-Barétous intermediate sprint is coming up with Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen breaking away from the original lead group as they eye up points for the green jersey.
Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) join them and these four will be the main contenders for maximum points.
Ben Fleming5 July 2023 13:22