Vingegaard lands hammer blow in Catalonia as Evenepoel and co crack, Almeida and Pidcock lose time after crashes

Stage 5 in Catalonia was meant to be the second chapter of a punishing three-day sequence. The fourth stage would normally have delivered the first summit finish, but the wind had already forced organisers into changes, with the line moved down to the foot of the climb. Friday’s stage was also hit by windy conditions, although to a lesser extent, and that meant the final two kilometres of the summit ascent were removed from the route as well.

Even so, it remained a savage day out with nearly 4,500 metres of climbing. The pure climbers had their chance, and they took it from the gun: a five-man breakaway formed featuring Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Davide Piganzoli (Visma | Lease a Bike), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Junior Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step) and Einer Rubio (Movistar). It was a seriously strong move.

The quality of the escape also meant the peloton never gave them much freedom. Two minutes was the biggest advantage the leaders were allowed, with INEOS Grenadiers and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe among the teams doing the work behind. The pace was fierce, and eventually too fierce for Lecerf, who was dropped from the front group with more than 60 kilometres still to race.

Ciccone was one of the day’s main animators. He fought for every mountain point and in doing so moved closer to mountains leader Baptiste Veistroffer. On the penultimate climb, the Collada Sobirana, the gap to the peloton had already come down to just one minute. Rubio was dropped there, and then a crash followed on the descent.

Two Visma | Lease a Bike riders were involved, while João Almeida had also gone down. Tom Pidcock was reportedly caught up as well, and the Briton tried to chase back on before the final climb. Almeida managed to return on the flat, which meant the Portuguese rider at least started the last ascent with the peloton.

That final climb was the Col de Pal, measuring 16.4 kilometres at an average gradient of 7.2 percent, a brutal test even in its shortened form. Just before the first rising ramps, Ciccone accelerated again, dropping Soler and Piganzoli. For quite a long time, the peloton still found itself staring at a deficit of around a minute.

The tempo set by INEOS Grenadiers on the front of the bunch simply was not high enough to bring Ciccone back quickly. Mikel Landa sensed that and launched with just over 10 kilometres to go. He briefly opened a gap, but it was soon closed again. Still, a number of team leaders had already lost their domestiques by then.

As had happened with Landa’s move, it was again Florian Lipowitz who reacted when Felix Gall accelerated. Lenny Martinez also bridged across to make it a dangerous trio, but Vingegaard did not wait around and quickly made the jump himself. Almeida was soon forced to let go, while Valentin Paret-Peintre could stay with the move. Evenepoel, meanwhile, had to give way too, with six kilometres still left to the finish.

Then came the decisive moment. Once Ciccone was caught, Vingegaard immediately kicked again and the two-time Tour de France winner was gone. Behind him, Lipowitz, Paret-Peintre, Gall and Martinez became the first chasers, but the Dane edged farther away from them second by second.

In the end, the time gaps were significant. Gall conceded 51 seconds to the stage winner, Martinez and Lipowitz 1:01, Evenepoel 1:38, Mattias Skjelmose, Cian Uijtdebroeks and Ben O’Connor 1:39, while Almeida lost just under two minutes. Unsurprisingly, Vingegaard also moved into the overall race lead.