Van Aert takes a day of his own affairs and Alaphilippe loses the yellow by penalty

• Movistar over low heat

Wout van Aert is a cyclist who, on the first major mountain pass of the Tour, was able to prepare the arrival for his leader, Primoz Roglic, to finish the job with astonishing ease.

But also a runner who, if he receives carte blanche from his director, has enough power to sneak among the best and most accredited sprinters in a pure 'sprint' and beat them all with an authority similar to that of Roglic on the previous day.

[Narration and classifications]

Van Aert, in short, is a unique rider in the peloton.

He may not be the best in any particular area, but he is so extremely good at almost all of them that he can disguise himself as a climber one day and a sprinter the next.

Not forgetting that he came to this Tour

in both long-distance and finishing shows and after being crowned national time trial champion, crushing Victor Campenaerts, one of the best 'croners' of the last five years.

Along with the fallen

and Roglic himself, the Belgian is the great name of the world squad after the pandemic, five victories already and the feeling that he may even be able to exceed the enormous expectations that were on him.

In the past Tour he was able to surprise in a 'sprint' and now he repeats in a very different context.

Because he already warned that his priority was to protect Roglic and Dumoulin so that the Jumbo manages to dethrone Ineos by winning the general, but also that, if he has legs and received permission, he would one day take his own business to seek individual brilliance.

"The easiest of my life"

This Wednesday's stage, the fifth of the Tour, was propitious for the Belgian to seek the partial victory he was looking for.

"It is the easiest stage I have ever run in my life," he admitted unequivocally at the finish line, after

.

Since 2008, the only precedents of a stage without escapes dates from the last stages, arriving at the Champs Elysees, of three editions (2012, 2013 and 2018).

But, despite everything, there was a change of leader.

Starting this Thursday, it will be

who dresses in yellow after Julian Alaphilippe was hunted by picking up a jerrycan 17 kilometers from the finish, when it was forbidden during the last 20.

An improper mistake for a squad like Deceuninck.

The 20 seconds of sanction received make the French fall to 16th position and leave the British in the lead, with three seconds over Roglic, who this Thursday, at Mont Aigoual, can wear yellow, although the rest of the great favorites are in a 10-second margin over the Slovenian.

Asgreen, one of Alaphilippe's gregarious, was the only one who tested the escape in the first kilometers, in a strange movement.

As soon as he saw that

, always a bad partner,

followed him

, he raised his foot and nothing else happened until the final meters.

A day-long torture for the spectators of the stage and especially for the commentators who narrated it live, with absolutely nothing to tell while the peloton advanced in a group and without excessive haste.

Not even the two scoring heights, in the fourth category, had the slightest emotion, since the whole peloton allowed

collect the dot for the

dot jersey that was distributed by each of the peaks.

The prize for combativeness, reserved for escapees, was finally handed over to Wout Poels, who endures in the race with a cracked rib and a bruise on his lung.

It could also have been for David de la Cruz, with a broken sacrum and like the Dutchman still on the bike.

The peloton had some fear of the strong wind announced for the final 20 kilometers, which in the end turned out not to be so fierce.

Ineos was the only one who wanted to play a bit, but the first time he tried to look for fans they had to abort the mission due to

and the second time they were not able to break the large group.

At the final three kilometers, the Sunweb took the reins, Van Aert took the wheel of Cees Bol (second in goal) and passed him in the final meters.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• sports

Tour de France 2020Top 10 favorites of the Coronavirus Tour

Tour de France 2020Egan Bernal and the supremacy threatened by the great team of the Jumbo-Visma

CyclingVan Aert reinvents 'La Primavera'

See links of interest

• Last minute

• Spanish translator

• Programming

• 2020 calendar

• Horoscope today

• League classification

• Santander League Calendar

• Movies Today

• Topics

• Live, the fifth stage of the Tour de France