Olav Kooij won Tour de France stage 5 in Pau on a day that ended in a fast, chaotic sprint after the peloton was split by a crash just outside the city.
The stage covered 158.3km and finished in 3:29:07, with the narrow streets around Pau creating a tense finale. A late crash at 5km to go broke up the bunch, but the main sprint favourites were still in contention inside the final 3km before Kooij came through to take the victory.
How the stage unfolded
The racing had started with a breakaway that included Veistroffer, who took two king of the mountains points with 25km to go while Alex Baudin took one. The trio off the front still had a gap at 20km to go, although it was no longer increasing. By 18km to go, Veistroffer’s lead was down to 25 seconds and the move was close to being caught.
Veistroffer was brought back into the peloton at 14km to go, and from there the focus shifted to positioning for the sprint. Things got more complicated at 8km to go when the bunch split around road furniture, and the pressure increased again after the crash just outside Pau with 5km to go. A Cofidis rider then went wide without crashing on another sharp turn with 2km to go, underlining how technical the finale had become.
What it means for GC
Despite the late crash and the split in the peloton, the general classification did not change after the stage. Torstein Træen remained in yellow, and the day ended as a sprint stage rather than a GC turning point.
For Jasper Philipsen, the finish was not as strong as he needed. He said he “didn’t have the legs,” which summed up a day when the fastest men still had to navigate a nervous run-in before the sprint was settled. Kooij handled that final test best and left Pau with the stage win.
