Evenepoel wins stage five as Pogacar claims yellow jersey

6d ago | Source: BBC

Remco Evenepoel lived up to his billing as the pre-stage favourite

Remco Evenepoel won the individual time trial on stage five of the Tour de France as Tadej Pogacar took the yellow jersey from Mathieu van der Poel.

Belgium's Evenepoel, who is the world and Olympic champion in the discipline, lived up to his billing as favourite on the 33km route around Caen with a stunning performance.

The Soudal Quick-Step rider finished 16 seconds quicker than Slovenia's Pogacar, with Italy's Edoardo Affini, third, 33 seconds back.

"I gained positions at every checkpoint. The pacing was perfect and everything was on point, I'm super happy," said Evenepoel.

"I did what I had to do to take as much time as possible and step up in GC [General Classification]. It's kind of the same situation as last year, so I'm happy with that. It's a big step towards the podium, but there's still a long way to go.

"Everybody knows what's coming next week and the week after. One year, I will come to win the Tour but it's a bit too early this year."

Pogacar was the big beneficiary of the day after an excellent ride of his own as his main GC rival, Jonas Vingegaard, toiled.

The Dane, who has won the Tour twice, ended the race against the clock in 13th to ship over a minute to three-time champion Pogacar, with Evenepoel moving up to second in the GC standings 42 seconds behind.

Vingegaard is fourth overall, with promising French rider Kevin Vauquelin 14 seconds ahead of him.

Dutch rider Van der Poel came home in 18th and drops to sixth.

The result also means that Pogacar becomes the first rider to wear the yellow, green and polka-dot jerseys at this stage in the Tour since Belgium's Eddy Merckx in 1970.