Stage 5 TDF 2022 Blog: Clarke Smiling After the Dust Settles
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The second half of Stage 5 was all-action, with a lot of falls. The breakaway riders fared best, avoiding the chaos.
Magnus Cort was out front again, along with team mate Neilson Powless. Eddie Boasson-Hagen, Taco van der Hoorn, and Simon Clarke (Israel Premier Tech) were also in the break.
Approaching the line, Cort had dropped away. Powless went long, and the other three played a game of bluff to see who would crack first and chase him down. It was Steady Eddie who sprinted after Powless, using up all the beans he had left.
That left van der Hoorn and Clarke. TVDH started his sprint with 350m to go, but a grimacing Clarke drew level with him, then with a bike throw just got to the line first.
Jumbo Visma
It was a day of trouble for Jumbo Visma.
Wout van Aert was the first to fall, and didn’t seem quite right afterwards.
Next Jonas Vingegaard had a mechanical – his chain got stuck – and he played a game of pass the bicycle with Nathan van Hooydonck and Steven Kruijswijk before getting a bike change from the team car.
Vingegaard and his team mates were fighting to get back to the peloton when Roglic went down and dislocated his shoulder. He had to sit on a spectator’s chair to put it back in.
While the Jumbos were struggling to get back, Tadej Pogacar rode off the front of peloton with Jasper Stuyven. It looked as though he might gain a minute or so over Vingegaard, but with van Aert’s strong riding in the Jumbo cause the time gap was only 13s in the end. Roglic lost quite a lot more time.
Even though Pogacar gained time, he didn’t look invincible, and we still have a race on our hands.
Geraint Thomas had a fall, but came in with the Vingegaard group, with Adam Yates, Dani Martinez and Tom Pidcock.