You didn’t have to miss a day for the siesta. Barely twenty-four hours after the deadly stage between Dax and Nogaro, the fifth episode of the Tour de France 2023 offered us Wednesday a festival of action worthy of the greatest American blockbusters, for this first passage in the high Pyrenean mountains. With, at the finish, a new young face headlining the young Australian Jai Hindley, leader of the Bora-Hansgrohe team, who brilliantly won solo at Laruns, offering himself both his first victory over the Grande Boucle and the yellow jersey as a cherry on the four-quarters.
Announced as one of the outsiders for a place on the final podium, in Paris, on July 21, the winner of the Giro 2022 has just confirmed all the good that specialists have thought of him for a while. “It may surprise everyone, but I’m very happy to wear this magnificent jersey,” he told France TV after the race. It wasn’t really planned but I felt good so I took the breakaway. Then I tried to put as much time as possible between myself and the other leaders. (Once I left) I wanted the stage victory, and the yellow jersey on top of that is really a dream. »
Hindley invites himself to the big table
Starting 135 kilometers from the finish in a huge breakaway (limits one herd) filled with top names (Van Aert, Alaphilippe, Ciccone, Buchmann, Madouas, Uran), the Australian completed a perfect race from start to finish, to finish by a recital in the last pass of the day, that of Marie Blanque, where he left no crumbs to the competition. “I tried to be as smart and efficient as possible in the breakaway and it worked pretty well on the final climb,” the new Tour yellow jersey will modestly say on France TV. If the general public will now get to know him, in the middle, we have already known for a while that the climber has it in his calves.
Which explains our astonishment to see a peloton made up of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar give him up to four minutes in advance without reacting – the UAE team contenting itself with ensuring the tempo. The two favorites of the Tour ended up whistling the end of recess 25 kilometers from the finish, setting a strong pace, but in this little game there is one who has certainly lost more than the other. He is “Poggi”. In the wheel of Vingegaard halfway up in Marie Blanque, the winner of the Tour de France 2020 and 2021 remained with his ass screwed on his saddle when the leader of the Jumbo-Visma placed his first big attack. On arrival, Vingegaard put more than a minute in the snags of the Slovenian who, a good player, wanted to salute the performance of his rival.
“He was too fast in the ascent (of Marie Blanque), I tried to hold on as much as possible to the top but he was really very strong. What an attack!, applauded Poggi. When there is someone who is stronger than you on a day like this, nothing can be done in those cases. We will continue to fight, all is not lost. It’s a hard blow but it’s the first mountain stage, we’ll see day after day. The objective is clear, there is motivation in the team, we will continue to fight every day to try to regain time. »
“Pogacar is not going to let go like that”, warns Gaudu
Asked at the end of the stage, Jonas Vingegaard (5th at the finish) could only be satisfied with the scenario of the day, which now places him in the shoes of the immense favorite of the Tour 2023. “The plan was to put of the guys in the breakaway, we had three. On paper it was not a step that suited me very well. But on the last climb, I felt like I had good legs. I told Sepp (Kuss) to go forward, and I attacked, he detailed. I was surprised that Pogacar couldn’t follow me. I wanted to test it out a bit, my legs were really good. I’m super happy with my performance today, to be a minute ahead of him already. If I am now the big favorite of the Tour? I don’t know. We just keep doing our best and we’ll see where it takes us. »
For the moment, you see, not a word for Jai Hindley, proof that it takes more to get into the heads of the monsters of the circuit and worry them in their quest for glory on the Champs-Elysées. Nevertheless, his performance of the day places him (at least) as a real contender for the final podium. For Laurent Jalabert, on the set of France TV after the race, “Hindley also invites himself to the party for the yellow jersey”. As for Pogacar, if it is obvious that he took a big hit on the cigar on Wednesday, we still allow ourselves to wait a little before burying him definitively. This is also the opinion of David Gaudu, 9th in the day’s stage just behind the Slovenian: “We saw him last year, once the Jumbos had a little irritated the beast, he was revengeful. So inevitably he will be again, he will not let go like that. We know what he is capable of. We will say that Jumbo has put the first mine but it is perhaps Pogacar who will answer them tomorrow. The appointment is given, for the first arrival at the top of this Tour.