LARUNS: Australian Jai Hindley crossed the line alone to win stage five of the Tour de France on Wednesday to take the overall leader’s yellow jersey as defending champion Jonas Vingegaard won a tactical battle with key rival Tadej Pogacar.

Hindley leads Vingegaard with the Dane pulling off a major coup on the final mountain and now has a 53-second advantage on Pogacar in the overall standings, which took a major shake up.

Bora-Hansgrohe rider Hindley, the 2022 Giro d’Italia winner, shook off his rivals on the Col de Marie-Blanc to break clear in the yellow jersey standings.

The 27-year-old finished 32 seconds ahead of Italy’s Giulio Ciccone and Austrian Felix Gall with Vingegaard fifth at 34sec.

Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma stunned the UAE Team when Wout Van Aert dropped back from an early break and led Vingegaard uphill with an impressive 500m pull.

Jumbo climber Sepp Kuss then took the relay until he too peeled away before Vingegaard broke free and put the hammer down over the remaining 15km to the finish line.

Meanwhile, UAE Team rider Pogacar, the 2020 and 2021 champion, was left isolated as overnight leader Adam Yates appeared unable to help in the chase.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2023