Hayter dominates time trial in Luxembourg, as McNulty takes leader’s jersey from a disappointing Skjelmose

After Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) won the fourth stage, the Dane faced a challenging task: defending the leader's jersey in the time trial. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) was not far behind and seemed to be in pole position for the lead in the GC. However, it was a difficult time trial, where anything could happen.

Two excellent times were set very early in the day. Johan Price-Pejtersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was very fast on the way, but had slightly overestimated his pace. This allowed the Swiss Joel Suter (Tudor) to beat his time, and by a considerable margin. Time trialists such as Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Casper Pedersen (Soudal Quick-Step) also struggled to beat his time.

However, the big contenders would start later in the day. Nils Politt was the first of them. The German from UAE Team Emirates - XRG finished 34 seconds behind, but Hayter was already very fast. In the second part, he opened the throttle completely and finished a whopping 1.15 minutes under! Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa) also failed to finish within a minute: had we already seen the stage winner?

Don't cheer too soon, because there were quite a few classification riders who had a good time trial in their legs. Ben Healy (EF Education - EasyPost) set the second fastest time so far, 56 seconds behind Hayter, but others were also fast. McNulty managed to gain almost 30 seconds on Skjelmose at the first intermediate point, but the second part would be crucial.

Richard Carapaz (EF Education - EasyPost) put in a strong performance with the seventh-fastest time so far, but we had to wait for the other podium contenders to arrive. Defending champion Marc Hirschi also did reasonably well, but McNulty showed who was boss. Hayter's time had flown by, but the American made up more than enough on Skjelmose to take the leader's jersey: the Dane ultimately lost no less than a minute.