Tour de France: Gall takes on mountain jersey for the first time

Jai Hindley (Bora) clinched the day’s victory single-handedly. The Australian thus also took over the yellow jersey from the overall leader and replaced the British winner Adam Yates as the leader. “The stage win and the yellow jersey on top of that is unbelievable. That’s incredible. I do not know what to say. I was already successful at the Giro d’Italia, but that’s something else again,” said the 2022 Giro winner after his stage win. The Italian Giulio Ciccone secured second place ahead of Gall in the finish sprint.

Of the tour favourites, last year’s winner Jonas Vingegaard convinced in fifth place, finishing 32 seconds behind the winner at the same time as Ciccone, Gall and fourth-placed Emanuel Buchmann. Meanwhile, two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar suffered a heavy blow, being duped by Vingegaard on the final climb and losing a good minute to the Dane. Hindley now leads the Tour de France by 47 seconds over Vingegaard and 1:03 over Ciccone. Gall is the best Austrian, just over six minutes behind, in 29th place.

Reuters/Stephane Mahe Hindley won a stage of the Tour for the first time in his career and thus took over the yellow jersey

“After I didn’t feel so good for the first few days, today I was finally able to perform again, which I’ve been able to do for the last few weeks and months. I’m very happy about that,” said a satisfied Gall after the stage and added: “I then thought I’d go straight to the mountain classification, I didn’t expect that we would get such a big lead. I’m very satisfied. But now things are really getting started.”

Gall attacks on the first summit

Gall had already convinced at the Tour de Suisse, on Wednesday he showed his form on the big stage. The stage quickly picked up speed, the main victims of the hellish pace were the sprinters, who had to be quickly torn down. Gall was able to keep up the pace and dominated events on the climb to the first summit.

AP/Daniel Cole Gall ruled the action on the climb to the first summit and thereby secured the mountain jersey

The former junior world champion won a mountain classification in the highest category (Hors Categorie) on the Col de Soudet. From a red-white-red point of view, only Georg Totschnig had managed that before him in 2005 at the Col de Pailheres. Gall attacked on the climb and, in the dense fog, prevailed with a lead of 15 seconds over the first pursuers. A few seconds later, Gregor Mühlberger also climbed the summit.

Vingegaard catches up to Gall

A group of 17, driving four minutes ahead of the peloton, banded together after the descent before further attacks were launched. Going into the third climb of the day at the Col de Marie Blanque, Gall was back in the lead, initially with Hindley before the Australian surpassed him. Behind Gall, Vingegaard attacked on the climb, leaving Pogacar standing. The defending champion from the Jumbo Visma team then caught up with Gall on the descent, while Hindley cycled towards victory at the very front.

The suffering in the Pyrenees continues for the sprinters on Thursday when the first mountain finish is on the agenda. At the end of the sixth stage over 144.9 kilometers, the ascent to Cauterets-Cambasque, a mountain in the first category, awaits. Before that, it also goes over the Col d’Aspin and the legendary Col du Tourmalet at an altitude of 2,115 meters. “Tomorrow there will be a lot of points again and I don’t know if I’ll go out again or if we’ll concentrate on the stage,” explained Gall.

Tour de France, fifth stage

Pau – Laruns (165 km): 1. Jai Hindley AUS 3:57:07 2. Giulio Ciccone NOW + 0:3

Felix Gall

AUT “-” 4. Emanuel Buchmann GER “-” 5. Jonas Vingegaard DEN 0:34 6. Mattias Skjelmose DEN 1:38 7. Tadej Pogacar SLOW “-” 8. Daniel Felipe Martinez COL “-” 9. David Gaudu FRA 10. Carlos Rodriguez ESP “-” 13. Simon Yates GBR “-” 15. Adam Yates GBR “-” 42. Wout van Aert BEL 8:1

Gregor Muehlberger

AUT

11:08

75.

Marco Haller

AUT

16:52

79.

Felix Großschartner

AUT

“-”

122.

Michael Gogl

AUT

27:19

146.

Patrick Konrad

AUT

“-”

rating

Standing after 21 stages: 1. Jai Hindley AUS 22:15:12 2. Jonas Vingegaard DEN + 0:47 3. Giulio Ciccone ITA 1:03 4. Emanuel Buchmann GER 1:11 5. Adam Yates GBR 1:3 6. Tadej Pogacar SLO 1:40 7. Simon Yates GBR -“- 8. Mattias Skjelmose DEN 1:56 9. Carlos Rodriguez ESP “-” 10. David Gaudu FRA “-”

Felix Gall

AUT