Olav Kooij wins fifth stage in chaotic dash finish

Netherland’s Olav Kooij celebrates as he crosses the end line to win the fifth stage of the Tour de France biking race with begin in Lannemezan and end in Pau, France, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Picture/Thibault Camus)

PAU, France–Dutch debutant Olav Kooij received the fifth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday in a chaotic dash end sparked by a crash 5 kilometers from the road which scuppered a number of groups’ hopes.

The 24-year-old beat German Max Kanter into second with Belgian Tim Merlier coming residence in third as Norway’s Torstein Traeen stored the race chief’s yellow jersey regardless of being introduced down within the crash.

“I needed to wait till today to get this primary probability to dash within the Tour and to win it’s unbelievable,” stated Kooij.

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With the sprinters primed for motion on this flat fifth stage billed as a possible bunch end, there was understandably some additional pressure within the peloton within the run-in.

A number of riders went down within the spill with simply over 5km to trip, with Dutchman Alex Molenaar seemingly the worst affected.

Nonetheless, dozens of riders had been slowed up by the crash and located themselves desperately making an attempt to chase down a lowered peloton charging in direction of the end line at Pau on one other sweltering day within the southwest of France.

Sprinters reminiscent of Jasper Philipsen misplaced key lead-out team-mates like Mathieu van der Poel and it led to a disorganised run to the end line with no groups capable of tee up their quick males as they might have needed to.

Co-captain of the Decathlon group alongside Paul Seixas, Kooij emerged from the chaos with an irresistible surge to the road to perform his pre-tour goal to “win a minimum of one dash stage”.

“It was fairly a simple day till the ultimate, so then you recognize will probably be hectic on this first dash of the Tour,” stated Kooij. “Everybody continues to be actually keen and I simply managed to seek out my means.

“I did it by myself ultimately and I discovered the suitable wheel and I simply needed to have an opportunity to dash at the moment. Once I noticed the road I simply went as exhausting as I might.”

The Dutchman had by no means ridden on the Tour earlier than as his earlier group, Visma-Lease a Bike, didn’t convey a sprinter to the race as they concentrated solely on their general contender Jonas Vingegaard.

And he bought off to a poor begin with new group Decathlon CMA CGM as he battled an extended sickness firstly of the yr.

 Lone breakaway

Denmark’s Mads Pedersen sporting the most effective sprinter’s inexperienced jersey celebrates on the rostrum after the fifth stage of the Tour de France biking race with begin in Lannemezan and end in Pau, France, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Picture/Mosa’ab Elshamy)

Traeen managed to complete in a gaggle 14 seconds behind the winner, alongside reigning champion Tadej Pogacar and different general contenders reminiscent of Vingegaard, Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel and French teenage sensation Seixas.

He was helped by Dane Vingegaard’s Visma group motoring on after the crash to strive to make sure their group chief, who’s a two-time Tour winner, didn’t lose any very important seconds to his major rivals.

The Norwegian nonetheless leads the Tour by 28sec from American Sean Quinn, with Czech Mathias Vacek third at 3min 50sec.

“To be trustworthy, I don’t know that a lot, abruptly I used to be on the bottom,” stated Traeen about his crash.

“I went to a nook after which I used to be there (on the bottom), after which fortunately I had the Visma prepare coming previous and introduced us again to the group.”

He stated he had “a small wound on my knee however nothing actually critical”.

It was a reasonably typical dash stage till the finale, with a doomed breakaway simply chased down earlier than the enterprise finish.

Baptiste Veistroffer stated earlier than the stage started that he was decided to get away in a break and positive sufficient, he was true to his phrase.

From the chequered flag, he shot off down the street, however maybe to his shock, nobody else joined him.

It meant that the Frenchman spent 144 kilometres out alone on the entrance of the race earlier than the sprinters’ groups reeled him in with 14km left to trip.

“I loved it an enormous quantity, I used to be smiling the entire day,” stated Veistroffer.

“The encouragement, the followers on the Tour are one thing that you just actually need to honour.”

After that it was over to the sprinters’ groups, however they had been unable to regulate the run-in.