“Pau has the world’s most beautiful view of the earth just as Naples has the most beautiful view of the sea,” the 19th century French polymath Alphonse de Lamartine said of the Pyrenean city where stage five of the Tour de France began, and where many of the teams will be heading after an electric stage on Wednesday.
Opinion will be split, however, on just how beautiful the view is from Pau, or just how beautiful the Pyrenees are, now. While some, like stage winner and new yellow jersey Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), or the resurgent Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) can reflect on beauty on their drive back to Pau, others will not be as lucky. Unlike the last time the Tour came to Laruns, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) was not victorious, and ended up conceding 1-38 to Hindley and 1-02 to Vingegaard.
It might only be stage five, but the first mountain stage of this year’s race could yet prove decisive. For those expecting the Tour to be a two-horse race, a duel for the ages between Vingegaard and Pogačar, then this a big shakeup, a big step forward for the former’s defence of his title.
There was no super elation from Vingegaard or his Jumbo teammates as they turned up back to their bus; a solitary “YES!” when the Danish rider got onto the bus the only excessive celebration. They are, naturally, taking it stage by stage.
He and his team were surprised with how easy it seemed to drop and put time into their biggest rival, the man who seemed to be taking time and bonuses at will on the opening two stages in the Basque Country.
Asked if he was surprised at the time gaps, Jumbo-Visma directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman replied: “Actually yes, of course. It was a nice surprise, a good surprise.”
“It was good,” he continued. “Jonas did a fantastic climb. We had a good plan, it worked out well. But it’s day five of the Tour de France, so let’s stay calm and tomorrow is another hard day, but this day was good.”
There was no bigger plan to blow the race open on Wednesday, Jumbo insisted, just that they took advantage when the moment presented itself.
“First of all, the plan was to have a few guys in the break,” Vingegaard explained post-stage. “We ended up with three, to have a satellite rider. More in some kind of defence, actually, because we didn’t think this was the perfect stage for me. Then when they started riding on the last climb, I knew I had good legs, so I told Sepp [Kuss] to go on the front, he did, and then I decided to attack as well.”
It seems so…