Remco Evenepoel wins stage 5 time trial at Tour de France
Belgium's Remco Evenepoel has won Stage 5 of the Tour de France, a 33km individual time trial starting and finishing in Caen.
The reigning Olympic and world time trial champion finished 16 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogačar, who now wears the yellow jersey as overall leader, taking it from Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel. Evenepoel is now second in the general classification, 42 seconds behind Pogačar.
"You never know beforehand, especially with strong riders like Edoardo Affini, who excel on this kind of course," Evenepoel said in a post-stage interview.
"Today, it all came together. I couldn’t have gone any faster, so I’m happy with this result"
“I knew I had a good chance, but you need the legs and everything needs to go to plan. Today, it all came together," he said. "I couldn’t have gone any faster, so I’m happy with this result. It’s also great for the team to already have a second stage win.”
Evenepoel and his team were taken by surprise in Saturday’s opening stage when the peloton split due to crosswinds, leaving him unexpectedly behind Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard. “Today, I wanted to prove that I belong at the front,” he said.
"After Stage 1, I was honestly a bit disappointed in myself for being too complacent in the crosswinds," he said. "Without that mistake, maybe I’d be in yellow today – that was definitely a missed opportunity. But ticking off a stage win was one of our goals, and this puts us a step closer to a possible podium finish, even if there’s still a long way to go."
© PHOTO LOIC VENANCE / AFP
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