As feared and anticipated, stage 5 of the 2022 Tour de France with its 11 sectors of cobblestone roads wreaked havoc on the peloton, ruined some riders’ hopes for the overall and knocked a few out of the race entirely.
There were crashes, mechanicals, furious chases and attacks, and so much action packed into the final 50 kilometres of the 157km stage from Lille to Wallers that it was hard to keep track of it all.
Cyclingnews takes a look back at the most important moments of the most manic stage yet of this year’s Tour de France.
Van Aert crashes
Tour de France leader Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) was uncharacteristically far back in the peloton for the first half of stage 5. With the first of 11 sectors of pavé looming on the horizon, he began working his way up but then a touch of wheels in the bunch sent him sprawling to the tarmac. During his chase back, he almost clipped the Team DSM car. He finished the stage near the front of the chase group behind stage winner Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) but had to have been rattled by such a frantic day.
“I didn’t really like it in the front of the bunch, the roads were way too dangerous. Everyone expected something from us because of the cobbles, but then we started to go through the villages and there were a lot of narrowings and things on the road. I didn’t like it there and didn’t want to take risks. At the moment when I thought it was necessary to start moving up I immediately crashed because of a narrowing. I hurt myself a bit but I also lost a bit of confidence to go really in the fight for position.
“It’s a shame because at that point I let down the other boys and I was in the back instead of having a good position on the cobbles. From then on it was a fight with myself the whole day.” – Wout van Aert after stage 5 of the Tour de France.
Van Aert decries ‘dangerous’ Tour de France cobbled stage on bad luck day
More Jumbo-Visma mayhem
There was another slapstick moment for Jumbo-Visma as Jonas Vingegaard suffered a mechanical and then swapped bikes with a much taller teammate. The saddle of the bike was so high that the Dane couldn’t sit on it and reach the pedals. Soon, Steven Kruijswijk stopped with him and the pair swapped bikes, but just as they did so, the Jumbo-Visma car made it to them and stopped on the opposite side of the…
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