First difficult mountain stage of the Tour de France, and the German team Bora-hansgrohe shone: Jai Hindley won the 5th stage over 163 km from Pau to Laruns on Wednesday (05.07.23) with two difficult climbs and is the new overall leader. But last year’s winner Jonas Vingegaard also showed a very strong condition.
The Australian Hindley attacked on the last climb and easily shook off his opponent Felix Gall. Shortly behind came Giulio Ciccone and Emanuel Buchmann over the Col de la Marie Blanque. And: Last year’s winner Jonas Vingegaard gave a demonstration of his condition: the Dane from Jumbo-Visma easily distanced the co-favorite Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) on the climb and finished fifth 18 km later, behind Giulio Ciccone and Felix Gall, Hindley’s precious helper Emanuel Buchmann finished fourth on the day and also took fourth place in the overall standings.
Buchmann: “The result is perfect”
“The result is perfect”said Buchmann on the sportschau microphone, and was surprised about Vingegaard: “It came out of nowhere on the descent. But I’m not completely at the limit, something should be possible tomorrow.” The sixth stage leads over five passes, including two of the first and one of the Hors Categorie. “It can’t be a bad tour anymore with a stage win and the yellow jersey”, said a delighted Rolf Aldag, sports director at Bora-hansgrohe. Aldag admitted that the team wasn’t too focused on winning the day: “No not at all. Maybe on the second row with emu (Nickname of Emanuel Buchmann, ed.), that’s where emu can be a part of. But if it turns out like this, there is also a little bit of luck involved.”
Col de Soudet: Felix Gall grabs 20 points
The Austrian Gall made a strong impression on the first climb of the most difficult Hors Category. About two kilometers before the top of the pass, the driver from the AG2R Citroën team pulled away. Hindley (Australia), Ciccone (Italy, Lidl-Trek) and Latvian Krists Neilands (Israel – Premier Tech) kept up briefly. But then Gall accelerated again and was the first to roll over the pass. Buchmann, who was entirely in the service of his captain Hindley, couldn’t quite keep up with the Austrian’s increased pace, but he was convincing with his help.
Col de la Marie Blanque: Gall and Hindley dictate the pace
Gall also showed his class on the second steep climb of the fifth stage: Together with Hindley, the Austrian mastered the 13% incline brilliantly. Buchmann was a little behind, but was once again very strong. At the top of the mountain classification, the current German champion was fourth. As a result, Gall slipped into the dotted jersey of the best climber.
On the ten-kilometer descent to the finish, Hindley made no mistakes and secured the convincing victory of the day. In the battle for second place, Vingegaard still worked on the pace and finished second overall. Previous leader Adam Yates dropped back to fifth.