Tour de France 2023 – Jai Hindley soars into yellow with Stage 5 win as Jonas Vingegaard cracks Tadej Pogacar

Never underestimate a Giro d’Italia winner – and on the first day in the Pyrenees, the big general classification favourites did just that, allowing debutant Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) into a dangerous break and paving the way for the Australian’s glorious win and the yellow jersey.

Hindley, the 2022 Giro victor, now leads the Tour by 47 seconds on defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). The Dane also had reason to celebrate after attacking his big rival Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) on the Col du Marie Blanque to take over a minute from the two-time winner from Slovenia.

On a day to forget for UAE Team Emirates, Britain’s Adam Yates conceded the yellow jersey to Hindley and dropped to fifth place on the new-look GC, one place ahead of Pogacar, who saw his 11-second lead over Vingegaard morph into a deficit of 53 seconds.

The damage was done on the third and final climb on the first of two days in the Pyrenees when Vingegaard rode clear of Pogacar after some expert pacing from his American team-mate Sepp Kuss. As the white jersey of Pogacar dug deep to limit his losses, Vingegaard – who had three Jumbo team-mates up the road as satellite riders – soared past remnants of the day’s large breakaway in pursuit of lone leader Hindley.

Hindley crested the summit of the Marie Blanque with a 20-second lead over Austria’s Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroen), the new polka dot jersey, and had to keep his cool on a technical descent ahead of the fast run into the finish at Laruns, where Pogacar picked up his first Tour stage win in 2020.

Vingegaard joined forces with Gall, Italy’s Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Hindley’s Bora team-mate Emanuel Buchmann, the German champion, to set up a tense finale. But the quartet was unable to deny the race’s new yellow jersey a memorable win just five days into his Tour debut.

Asked whether taking the maillot jaune and winning a stage was part of the plan, the laid back 27-year-old Hindley said: “No, not really. I was sort of improvising out there and enjoying some bike racing. I just managed to find myself in that group and, yeah, I enjoyed it out there.

“It’s really incredible. I have no words. The guys on the radio were just screaming at me to ride to the line. I couldn’t really hear so much what was happening. I just wanted to take as much time as possible – and also the stage win – and, yeah, found myself in the yellow jersey, so that’s pretty cool.”

Big battle to make the break

After a fast and frantic opening hour – which saw American champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) hit the deck and sprinter Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep) distanced early on – a super group of 36 riders eventually managed to snap the elastic to set up a tantalising state of play in the first of back-to-back stages in the Pyrenees.

Active since the start of the stage, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) was at the heart of the move and quickly found himself in the virtual yellow jersey as the gap grew out to over two minutes ahead of the major test of the day, the Col de Soudet.

If the presence of GC dangerman Hindley looked to jeopardise the chances of the breakaway going the distance, this did not stop the gap swelling to over four minutes at the top of the first HC climb of this year’s Tour.

Austria’s Gall carved through the mist to take maximum points at the summit – enough to put him in the virtual polka dot jersey in his debut Tour. Gall had made his move after forming a leading quartet alongside Hindley, Ciccone and Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech).

An attack on the descent from Colombia’s Dani Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) brought Gall to heel and precipitated a regrouping on the front of the race, with around 20 riders soon back together on the approach to the second of three climbs.

It was a group of real class with Van Aert, Hindley, the Australian’s Bora team-mate Buchmann, and Ciccone all within 43 seconds of Adam Yates’ race lead. Other stand-out names included EF Education-EasyPost’s Colombian duo Esteban Chaves and Rigo Uran, French champion Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), the American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) and the former world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep).

Neilands, the rangy Latvian rouleur, powered clear ahead of the second climb of the day, the Cat. 3 Col d’Ichere, the summit of which he crested with a slender lead over Van Aert and Alaphilippe.

A trio formed on the descent and held a 25-second gap over their pursuers ahead of the final climb, the Col du Marie Blanque. The lion’s share of the work in the chasing breakaway was being done by Spaniard Omar Fraile, paving the way for his Ineos team-mate Martinez.

With AG2R duo Aurelien Paret-Peintre and Clement Berthet working for the in-form Gall, the 25-year-old looked to build on his recent stage win on the Tour de Suisse. And it was Gall who went clear with Hindley when the final shake-up happened entering the final 25km.

Jumbo-Visma coup as UAE wilt under pressure

The presence of Tiesj Benoot and Christophe Laporte up the road alongside Van Aert meant the onus on chasing down the break fell on the collective shoulders of UAE Team Emirates.

As the gap continued to grow, UAE recalled both Felix Grossschartner and Marc Soler from the breakaway to help pace their men in yellow and white, Yates and Pogacar. When the race hit the decisive Marie Blanque, UAE looked to be in control until Jumbo-Visma’s Kuss came to the front to set a fierce tempo for Vingegaard.

Just as Hindley was riding clear of Gall up the road, Vingegaard and Kuss – with a little help from Van Aert after he dropped back – managed to distance everyone except Pogacar in the group of favourites. The Dane then pulled the trigger with 20km remaining, earning himself a fist pump from Benoot after he powered through the remnants of the break in pursuit of the leaders.

Pogacar battled behind with Kuss stuck to his back wheel – and although he was joined by team-mate Yates, the latter’s twin brother Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) and the likes of David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) after the descent, the damage was already done.

If Hindley was the big winner of the day with a stage triumph and the yellow jersey after Bora’s tactical masterclass, Vingegaard laid the foundations for what could be a second maillot jaune in Paris. But although he admitted to having “a super good day” to reporters in Laruns, Vingegaard was quick to stress that Pogacar remained his biggest rival, while Hindley could not be underestimated.

“I know Tadej – he never gives up so I’m sure it’s going to be a fight all the way to Paris,” Vingegaard said. “I’m super happy with having 53 seconds and it’s super nice. But of course, we have to look to Jai Hindley now as well.”

The Tour continues on Thursday with a rendez-vous with the legendary Col du Tourmalet. The 145km Stage 6 also includes the Col d’Aspin and a summit showdown at Cauterets in what could give the wounded Pogacar a prime opportunity to bite back at the first opportunity.

– – –