A first victory for Israel-Premier Tech

Throwing his bike over the line, Simon Clarke closed his eyes. Exhausted, he prayed that he had managed to outrun the man to his right, Taco van der Hoorn, with whom he had spent the day on the breakaway.

The Australian from Israel-Premier Tech (IPT) waited to check out the photo finish before collapsing to the ground in tears. At 35, he won the biggest victory of his career, the fifth stage of the Tour de France, Wednesday afternoon, in Arenberg.

“Simon is a sniper. When he has an opportunity, he does not miss his chance, ”summarized his teammate Guillaume Boivin, happy to celebrate the very first success of the Israeli-Canadian formation on the Tour.

Highly anticipated, the stage which took 11 cobbled sections of Flanders delivered on its promises, upsetting the established order in the general classification in favor of the big favorite Tadej Pogačar. The Belgian Wout van Aert kept his yellow jersey in extremis after falling in the middle of the stage.

On a breakaway all day with five other riders, Clarke made it to the final mile with Neilson Powless, Taco van der Hoorn and Edvald Boasson Hagen.

Powless, who could hope to get his hands on yellow, was the first to start after the switch to red flame. The other three hesitated for long seconds before chasing after him. Clarke played poker with Boasson Hagen, forced to go on the offensive.

Van der Hoorn outflanked them, but Clarke, thighs like concrete, gritted her teeth in the final 50 meters to win. He thus rewards IPT, of which he was the very last runner hired in January, following the dissolution of his former Qhubeka formation.

“After the winter that I had without a team, receiving the call from Israel who said to me: “We are going to give you a chance”, it put me before the fact that I had to seize every opportunity . Throughout the season, I started each race with a knife between my teeth. »

In the morning, his sporting director told him he was on a mission to set sail, which he did by joining Powless and Alexis Gougeard before returning to Boasson Hagen, van der Hoorn and the tireless Magnus polka dot jersey Cort, on the run for the third day in a row.

The lead didn’t exceed much more than 3:30 on a tense day that the overall leaders feared like the plague. All, except perhaps van Aert, a specialist, and Pogačar, who can do everything.

Van Aert’s Jumbo-Visma were the big losers in this chaotic stage. Plaguing against the many turns and narrowings in the villages, the yellow jersey fell before the first cobbled sector by hitting his teammate Steven Kruijswijk, forced to slow down. Burned, the Belgian then spent long periods at the back of the peloton, which he later blamed himself for.

Van Aert got back to work when his Danish teammate Jonas Vingegaard suffered a mechanical failure, which forced him to change bikes three times.

35km from the line, Primož Roglič, Jumbo’s other protected leader, found himself on the ground after a hay bale blocked his way at a crossroads. The Slovenian got up, but he had to stop further to use a spectator’s chair and replace his dislocated shoulder…

Boivin, Krists Neilands and Jakob Fuglsang were slowed down by this crash. “I gave everything to bring Jakob back to a group of 15 up front,” explained the Quebecer. After that, I was pretty blown up. I came home with Krists more relaxed. »

Up front, Pogačar (UAE) took advantage of the fight in the cobblestones to escape with specialist Jasper Stuyvens (Trek). For a while the pair looked like they could get back on all six fumbles, but eventually they plateaued.

In the end, Pogačar swallowed only 13 seconds from Vingegaard, who benefited from the tireless work of van Aert. Several other contenders were in this group of around thirty runners.

Fuglsang came back to the front in the first chasing group. Very comfortable on this ground, the Dane avoided all the pitfalls to the wire. Hugo Houle accompanied him for quite a while, but a pile-up slowed him down in sector 7. The athlete from Sainte-Perpétue then hitched the van Aert train to reach the finish at 25^e row (+ 1 min 4 s).

“There were a few crashes, but Jakob was very good and he managed to always stay ahead. It made our job easier. »

Clarke’s victory is obviously a huge relief for IPT, who had made it their big goal before the start in Denmark.

“We will not hide it, a good part of our Tour de France is successful with that, underlined Houle. Not all teams will win a stage. Having one this early takes a bit of the pressure off, that’s for sure. »

Owner Sylvan Adams was obviously over the moon. “It was highly anticipated and an important victory, he wrote to us from Arenberg. We expect more victories in the next two weeks. »

Antoine Duchesne, the other Quebecer in the running, again made sure to position David Gaudu, the protected cyclist at Groupama-FDJ. He did most of his work before the cobbled sections.

“The objective was not to take time today, but above all not to lose any, recalled the Saguenéenne. The day went really well. We avoided the traps and we got through the falls and the mechanical failures. We tried to put David in the best possible mood. The whole team did their job. »

Roglič gave up over two minutes on Pogačar, a disaster for Jumbo-Visma. Despite everything, van Aert kept the yellow jersey to his surprise. He holds a priority of 13 seconds over Powless, 14 seconds over Boasson Hagen and 19 seconds over Pogačar.

This Thursday, the peloton will start from Binche, Belgium, for a rugged 219.9 km stage to Longwy, the longest of the Tour. The Côte des Religieuses should allow a puncher to win. An opportunity for Peter Sagan, who won there in 2017, to recover, he who fell on Wednesday?