Van Avermaet claims stage 5 at the Tour de France and takes the yellow jersey
Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) claims victory on stage 5 of the Tour de France and moves into the yellow jersey in the first mountain stage, while Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) conceded further ground.
The Belgian emerged as the strongest from a 9-rider breakaway and dropped Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) on the final climb before soloing across to the line to take not on the stage victory but also the first yellow jersey of his career. Movistar put the favourites under pressure and that cost Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) a time loss of another 33 seconds and made Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) crack completely.
With the win, Van Avermaet took over the yellow jersey with an advantage of 5’11” over Alaphilippe while Valverde is now 2 seconds further adrift in third. He should have a relatively easy first day in the yellow jersey as stage 6 should be another one for the sprinters. The start is hilly with two smaller climbs but in the second half, there’s just one category 3 climb before the riders get to the completely flat final 40km.
Tour de France 2016 – stage 5 results (Limoges – Le Lioran):
| 1 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) |
5:31:36 |
| 2 | Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) |
+02’34” |
| 3 | Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) |
+05’04” |
| 4 | Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) |
,, |
| 5 | Daniel Martin (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
+05’07” |
| 6 | Bartosz Huzarski (Bora-Argon 18) |
,, |
| 7 | Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
,, |
| 8 | Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) |
,, |
| 9 | Christopher Froome (Sky) |
,, |
| 10 | Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) |
,, |
General classification after stage 5:
| 1 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) |
25:34:46 |
| 2 | Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
+05’11” |
| 3 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) |
+05’13” |
| 4 | Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) |
+05’14” |
| 5 | Christopher Froome (Sky) |
+05’17” |
| 6 | Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) |
,, |
| 7 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) |
,, |
| 8 | Fabio Aru (Astana) |
,, |
| 9 | Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac) |
,, |
| 10 | Daniel Martin (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
,, |
