Tour de France 2022 -Stage 5 ( Lille – Arenberg 157 km)

Like a reverse Paris-Roubaix, the stage starts from Lille.

Although the finish of the stage is in Arenberg Porte du Hainaut and includes 11 cobbled sectors, the Tour de France won’t visit the famous Arenberg Forest.

Arenberg was included into the program of Paris-Roubaix in 1968. Read more about Jean Stablisnki, the rider, who introduced the place to the “Hell of the North”

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THE STAGE AS IT HAPPENED

Last km

Nelson Powless is the rider of the remaining 4 breakaway guys, who launches an attack. No wonder, he has the smallest chance to win the stage if it comes to sprint. But at the end, the stage victory is decided between Taco van der Hoorn and Simon Clarke. The latter one wins the race.

10 km to go

Gap between the breakaway group and the Stuyven-Pogacar duo is still around 45”. But more important, how big is the gap between Pogacar and the other GC favourites.

18 km to go

Jasper Stuyven has launched an attack and only Pogacar goes with him They are only 45”behind the breakaway group at the front of the race.
What an odd couple on the cobbles: Pogacar and Stuyven.
Behind them, Florian Vermersch, the sensation of Paris-Rouibaix un 2021 is slipping out in the corner.

27 km to go

Bettiol’s behaviour is still a mistery, but Pogacar thanks the contrabution.
Ladies and gentleman, the two-time Tour de France winner leads the main bunch on the cobbles.

29 km to go

As it wouldn’t be enought bad luck for Jumbo-Visma, Roglic crashed.
It looks like, Caleb Evans had even worse luck in that roundabout.

31 km to go

Wout van Aert is waiting for Jonas Vingegaard. Vingegaard’s group (he has other two teammates with him) is marked as Group3 currently.

36 km to go

Vingegaard had to change his bike. The spare bike fits a taller guy. He has to wait for his own spare bike. Now he has it. It’s quite understandable, that a rider like Vingegaard is overly anxious on this surface and overreacts the situation.

37 km to go

Mathieu van der Poel dropped. Well, he had an exciting and exhausting Giro d’Italia, no wonder, he is not o the top.

41 km to go

Dylan van Baarle, the winner of Pais-Roubaix 2022 is leading the peloton, Geraint Thomas is right behind him. But who is there in the 3rd position? Tadej Pogacar, who is entirely on his own, no teammates around him. But as he proved it so many times, there are situations, when he just doesn’t need them.

44 km to go

Jumbo-Visma is leading the main bunch on the cobbles. Although Wout van Aert is the rider currently in yellow jersey, his team has an important task: to protect Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard. This surface is not for those fagile GC riders.

48 km to go

Mathieu van der Poel at the front of the peloton.
While Ben O’Connor is dropped desperately and has no teammates with him.
As it was expected, the race became utterly chaotic

60 km to go

Apparently, the next cobbled sector will be the most dangerous.

A propos, dangerous sectors. Obviously, the race doesn’t visit Arenberg Forest.What fits  a one-day race, doesn’t really fit a 3-week competition.  A cobbled stage at Tour de France is a big spectacle, but the hazardous cobbles of Arenberg wouldn’t serve the purpose of a grand tour.

Also, the differences between a one-day race and a grand tour are demonstrated by the fact, that the stage previews are mentioning mostly Mathieu van der Poel as the biggest favourite of the day. Normally, Wout van Aert would be another big favourite, but he rides in a team with two GC contenders, thus  he has also teammates duties, while Mathieu van der Poel is basically free to do what he wants.

73 km to go

Alberto Bettiol is leading the peloton. Right behind him Tadej Pogacar. The big question:.  why on Earth is Bettiol leading the peloton, while his team has 2 riders in the break?

While Jack Bauer and Mads Pedersen comes out from the cobbled sector sligtly ahead of the peloton.

77 km to go

The breakaway group arrived to sector 11 (the first cobbled sector of the day)

80 km to go

Peloton 4 minutes behind the breakaway group.

91 km to go

Kruijswijk who went down with him, is now guiding Wout van Aert
And the peloton is waiting for them.

96 km to go

While the first (11th) cobbled sector is approaching, Wout van Aert, the rider in the yellow jersey hits the deck. Now he is trying to cath up with the peloton alone.

100 km to go

The gap between the breakaway group and the peloton is around 3 min.

110 km to go

Right after the intermediate sprint.

We have a six-man group breakaway, it didn’t take too much time (as usual nowadays) to be established, butalso didn’t happened right after the start. The six riders are Taco van der Hoorn, Simon Clarke, Edwald Boasson Hagen, Alexis Gougeard, Magnus Cort Nielsen and Nelson Powless, who is currently the virtual leader of the race.

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