Astana’s Fabio Aru has won Stage 5 of the Tour de France at La Planche des Belles Filles, the first true summit finish of this year’s race as attention switched from the departures through injury of Mark Cavendish and disqualification of Peter Sagan to the battle for the overall victory.
Team Sky’s Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, meanwhile, have swapped places at the top of the general classification, with the defending champion back in the yellow jersey.
It’s a quarter of a century since a Category 1 climb featured this early in the race, and nearly four decades since there was a summit finish on one, and this particular ascent has developed a reputation for being a strong indication of who will be there or thereabouts come Paris.
The climb made its debut in the 2012 Tour de France when Froome won on his way to finishing runner-up to team mate Bradley Wiggins, and was used again in 2014 when the stage went to that year’s eventual winner, Vincenzo Nibali.
Early on in the 160.5km stage from Vittel stage, an eight-man breakaway got clear, and what a group it was too packed with star names, including Philippe Gilbert of Quick-Step Floors, Direct Energie’s Thomas Voeckler and Dimension Data rider Edvald Boasson Hagen.
They were joined by AG2R-La Mondiale’s Jan Bakelants, Pierre-Luc Perichon of Fortuneo, FDJ’s Mickael Delage, Thomas De Gendt of Lotto Soudal and Cannondale-Drapac’s Dylan van Baarle.
Bakelants and Gilbert led the race onto the final, 5.9-kilometre climb having got away from their fellow escapees but the main group was closing fast with Team Sky now leading the chase after BMC Racing, working for Richie Porte, had forced the pace for most of the day.
With 2.4km remaining and the leading pair long caught, Aru attacked from the group led by the Team Sky trio of Mikel Nieve, Thomas and Froome.
> Tour Tech 2017: Fabio Aru’s stage 5 winning Argon 18 Gallium Pro
Lying 52 seconds off the race lead overnight, the Italian national champion quickly built a quarter of a minute’s advantage while behind him the overall contenders’ group was blown apart as Orica-Scott’s Simon Yates launched an attack with 2 kilometres to go.
Aru, who now lies third overall 14 seconds off the race lead, would not be caught, winning by 16 seconds from Quick Step Floors rider Dan Martin.
Froome was a further 20 seconds back as he took the yellow jersey from Thomas, who drops to second overall, 12 seconds behind his team mate.
> Tour de France 2017 preview: Your stage-by-stage guide to cycling's biggest race
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27 comments
It is a mistake to underestimate Aru... I reckon he's a GC contender.
Not a great tester but he rides with his heart on his sleeve - good man!
Small correction, I don't think Froome was a further 20 seconds back, he was a further 4 seconds back from Dan Martin or 20 seconds behind Aru
That Froome/Sagan breakaway last year was magic.
Don't think Quintana's got anything in the locker this year, more so since one of his main men is out. I know it's a long old race but I'd have thought he would have been matching Froome until the end today.
I hope everyone enjoys the daily battle for the stage, because this is going to be the most boring year in the GC since, well as long as I can remember. (Or 2012)
No Froome weird descending.
No Contador crashing on the descent.
No Schleck lone break away, and Evans agonised face chasing back.*
No Schleck slipping chain
No You know who cutting across a wheat field.
and now no Sagan of course.
*Possibly the greatest mountain head to head ever, and they weren't ever in sight of each other, just brilliant. We need a mountain time trail with no aero kit or special bikes starting at 2000m elevation.
You what? Hahaha. Are you new to this?
BMC tried to boss the day and wear the other teams down hoping to expose any weakness in Froome. It did expose fragility in Quintana and Contador, Froome was today a match for Richie Porte. I don't see Aru being a GC contender this year, despite an impressive win, no one really chased him down when he went for a break.
You don't see him being a GC contender because none of the other guys could catch him? Interesting point of view...
He's got no chance unless Froome, Porte, Quintana DNF. he might, might even sneak a podium, but even with a very short ITT he'd need to find 2 minutes in the mountains over Froome/Porte et al. He's okay on punchy climbs but he just doesn't have enough in the locker to be a serious contender .
They really didn't chase him because Froome, Porte, bardet and Quintana were all watching each other. The lead Aru won by was pegged when the others started to race each other. So if and when Aru tries again he will be marked. Like bike shed mentions he will struggle on the longer climbs and TT
No joy from me watching an Astana win I'm afraid.
Spoiler Alert PR:
We did this debate yesterday and concluded Road CC don't care.
If you want to avoid the result, avoid Road CC...
Avoid all news and social media #FTFY
And for what it's worth, we experimented a few years back with doing spoiler-free headlines on race reports (these were races not broadcast live, but where there was a highlights show later).
No-one read them.
See the Giro Rosa article was a one off then...
"No-one read them."
Is that not the whole idea, some people don't want to see it. Spolier-free headline or not to be on the safe side I stop looking at road.cc/twitter/instagram from about 15:00 during all Grand Tours as I like to watch the highlights show on TV with out already knowing the stage results.
"No-one read them."
"Is that not the whole idea,"
Aaah, No. When you have a cycling news site, you actually want people to read the articles, or what the hell is the point. What Simon is trying to point ou to you, is that they tried your suggestion a few years ago, and it had a very detrimental impact on their business, their ability to bring you the news that you like for the other 49 weeks of the year. He didn't mena no-ne read the head lines, he meant no-one read the articles.
You at least have the right idea. If you don't want to know the result until you've watched, keep off news sites, web sites, social media feeds, TV, Radio until you've watched it.
Anyone else get the email from Human Race Cycling with the subject "Froome in Yellow"?
Seems it's not just social media and news sites you have to avoid!
lansmurphy
Spoiler Alert PR:
We did this debate yesterday and concluded Road CC
don'tcare about all their readers, not just the ones who can't use enough common sense to not go on cycling pages on the interwebs if they don't want to know TdF results yetIf you want to avoid the result, avoid Road CC and any other news forum, especially those invovling cycling until after you've watched the race.
And please, not so precious. It's unbecoming of a cyclist
You spoil more people's enjoyment of the race than please those looking for news of it with the updates prior to the highlights programme.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_consensus_effect
Bollocks. By 'people' you mean yourself.
I'll see your bollocks and raise you a 'talking out of your arse' since people includes me as well
Where did you get the statistics upon which you are basing this assertion?
You don't have any, do you?
As a road cycling website I would imagine reporting the Tour results is not only part of the service Road.Cc provides, but its also a highlight of the year. If I ran it I would have a link to a live feed: the BBC have one.
Fancy that, a road cycling website containing details of the winner of today's stage in the worlds' most widely watched road cycling race? (plagiarised)
It only requires a modicum of intelligence to realise that if you browse cycling websites you are almost certain to come across a 'spoiler' for that day's results at some point. It really is quite simple; rather than asking everyone else and every website to modify their behaviour, altering their reporting styles, advertiser commitments etc, how about you simply exercise that modicum of intelligence, modify your behaviour, and don't go on a cycling website until you've watched the race? Also I suggest you keep your twitter feed, facebook feed, radio and television turned off too.
went to a lot of effort there, didn't we?
Road.cc could simply not issue the details of the stage but put "stage results here" or whatever.
it means lots like me won't avoid the website for hours and your precious advertisers get what they want.
there you go.....you got the reaction you hankered after.
Let's imagine y ou didn't watch the world cup final and were going to watch highlights later on. Would you go and look at www.football.cc in the time between the match ending and watching the highlights?
I don't watch any stages live, but I find it pretty easy to watch the highlights in the evening without a clue what happened because I don't look at sports websites. The only time I came close to being 'spoiled' was the Froome vs Moto incident last year, when I knew 'something big' happened but didn't know what (although bizzarrely on that occasion ITV started the highlights show with the result)