For the second time in this year’s Tour de France, Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) has beaten Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) in a sprint finish.
As opposed to the flatter stage 2, his stage 5 victory came at the conclusion of the race’s first hilly route Wednesday. Greg Van Avermaet took advantage of an intermediate bonus sprint to add two seconds to his overall lead, ahead of teammate Tejay van Garderen.
Greg Van Avermaet mistimed his sprint and Sagan took advantage to claim his second victory in this year’s event. Sagan clocked nearly five hours over the challenging leg through Brittany, which contained five categorized climbs over a 204.5-kilometer route from Lorient to Quimper. Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors was third and moved up to third overall.
”I don’t know if he did it on purpose or if he wanted to drop everybody but I have to say thanks,” Sagan said.
”I tried to win the stage but it was pretty complicated,” Van Avermaet said. ”Phil went early and he’s still pretty close on GC (general classification) so I couldn’t let him go. I think I went too early in the sprint. I thought the corner was closer to the finish than it really was.”
The Tour remains in Brittany for Stage 6 on Thursday, another hilly leg of 181 kilometers from Brest to Mur-De-Bretagne Guerledan, including two climbs of the short but steep Mur-de-Bretagne.
”We always see a bit of action there,” Froome said. ”I sometimes prefer those stages to the fast, flat stages.”
Tour de France 2018 – stage 5 results (Lorient – Quimper):
| 1 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | 4:48:06 |
| 2 | Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 3 | Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 4 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | ,, |
| 5 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 6 | Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 7 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) | ,, |
| 8 | Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 9 | Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 10 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 11 | Julien Simon (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 12 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 13 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 14 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 15 | Jelle Vanendert (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 16 | Egan Bernal (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 17 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | ,, |
| 18 | Richie Porte (BMC) | ,, |
| 19 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | ,, |
| 20 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
General classification after stage 5:
| 1 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) | 18:22:00 |
| 2 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) | +02” |
| 3 | Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) | +03” |
| 4 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | +05” |
| 5 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | +06” |
| 6 | Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) | +09” |
| 7 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +13” |
| 8 | Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 9 | Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) | +37” |
| 10 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +52” |
| 11 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | +53” |
| 12 | Richie Porte (BMC) | ,, |
| 13 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +55” |
| 14 | Mikel Landa (Movistar) | ,, |
| 15 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | +57” |
| 16 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +01’02” |
| 17 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) | +01’08” |
| 18 | Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) | +01’17” |
| 19 | Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 20 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
