Roglic and Vingegaard had already been set back by defects when Pogacar attacked in the fourth last cobblestone sector and also distanced Vlasow, captain of the German team Bora-hansgrohe. With the classics specialist Jasper Stuyven, Pogacar chased a five-man lead group and even drove in the virtual yellow jersey for a short time. In the final, however, the dominator also seemed to run out of strength and concentrated on gaining time on his ranking competitors.
Vingegaard and Vlasov lost just 13 seconds to Pogacar in the first big chasing group. The duo owed that largely to the work of van Aert, who risked his yellow jersey to help out Vingegaard. Although Roglic also had helpers at his side, he only reached the finish line 2:08 minutes after Pogacar.
The nervousness in the field was great
Eleven cobblestone sectors with a total length of 19.4 kilometers had to be mastered. Compared to the stage won by Degenkolb in 2018 over the pavés of northern France, the organizers chose longer sectors this year to make the race more difficult.
The teams adjusted the setup of the bikes according to the challenges of the day. So drove Wlassow, the bike that the team also uses in the spring classic Paris-Roubaix. A suspension is installed on the handlebars, which can be switched on and off. In addition, 32 millimeter wide tires without inner tubes were mounted, on normal stages a maximum of 28 millimeters are ridden. A thicker chainring should ensure that the chain does not fall off.
Right from the start, the field drove with a lot of pressure on the pedals. In the first hour of racing alone, the average was 51 km/h. The nervousness was great, even van Aert was careless. After colliding with teammate Steven Kruiswijk, the Belgian crashed about 95 kilometers from the finish. On the hunt back into the field, he also collided slightly with a team vehicle.
The incidents seemed to have left their mark, as van Aert was unusually far behind on the cobblestone passages. Things didn’t go particularly well for the Jumbo-Visma team. About 35 kilometers before the finish, last year’s second Vingegaard had a defect and had to wait a long time for a suitable spare wheel. Van Aert dropped back to help the Dane. Shortly thereafter, Roglic also fell behind. Within a few kilometers, Jumbo-Visma may have lost the tour on the fifth section.