Benjamin Thomas (Fra) Cofidis, in 3:59:59 (breakaway)
Michael Valgren (Den) EF Education-EasyPost
Andrea Pietrobon (Ita) Polti-Kometa, both at same time
Enzo Paleni (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +3sec
Jonathan Milan (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +11sec
Caleb Ewan (Aus) Jayco-AlUla
Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Bahrain Victorious
Tim Merlier (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step
Olaf Kooij (Ned) Visma-Lease A Bike
Madis Mihkels (Est) Intermarché-Wanty, all at same time
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE FIVE
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 19:19:15
Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +46s
Daniel Felipe Martínez (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe, +47s
Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, +55s
Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar, +56s
Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan, +1:07
Juan Pedro López (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +1:11
Jan Hirt (Cze) Soudal Quick-Step, +1:13
Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan, +1:26
Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, at same time
<<>>
Stage 5 abandonment: Adrien Petit Intermarché (not feeling well)
169 riders finished today’s Stage 5
<<>>
Stage winner, Benjamin ThomasCofidis celebrates his 10th pro stage victory.
Impressive to see a break of four riders narrowly escape capture so close to the finish, just 11 seconds before the sprinters arrive in force.
Today’s stage produced no positional changes in the top classifications except breakaway rider Andrea PietrobonTeam Polti Kometa who moves up from 19th to 6th place in the Points Classification, while first sprinter to finish and points leader, Jonathan Milan (Ita) Lidl-Trek extends his lead to 134 points.
<<>>
POINTS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 5
Jonathan Milan (Ita) Lidl-Trek 134 pts
Tim Merlier (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step 89 pts
Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecin Deceuninck 80 pts
Olav Kooij 9Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike 61 pts
Philip Fiorelli VF Group - Bardiana CSF - Faizane 56 pts
The GC guys will be wanting an easy day today in readiness for tomorrow’s time trial so possibly another opportunity for breakaway opportunists and today’s technically difficult course is perfect for attacks. Three gravel sections await totalling 12km, and although the hills are not prolonged there are steep gradients of 15% along the way, and even a tricky 20% climb some 5km from the finish.
Andrea Piccolo (Ita) EF Education-EasyPost, 18 points
Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, 16 points
YOUTH CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 5
Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 23:21:47
Alex Baudin (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +45s
Mauri Vansevenant (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +49s
Lucas Plapp (Aus) Jayco AlUla, +1:02
Filippo Zana (Ita) Jayco AlUla, +1:12
TEAMS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 5
Ineos Grenadiers 70:07:38
Astana Qazaqstan, +14s
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +1:04
EF Education-EasyPost, +04:44
VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè, +4:49
<<>>
All 165 riders finished today’s Stage 6
<<>>
Today’s rugged stage only produced one crafty change in the top classifications; Kaden Groves(Alpecin Deceuninck) who gained an additional 17 points in the intermediate Sprints moves up to 2nd place in the Points Classification overtaking Tim Merlier who drops to 3rd (and he won’t like that one little bit).
A day for the GC competitors, however there are others who are very good time trialists and will relish the chance of an ITT stage win. Today’s time trial course is likely to be won and lost on the final 7km of gradients with initial steep 1 km of 10%+ followed by a more gradual drag incline to the finish so the favourites could remain with the likes of Pogačar and Thomas who cope well with climbing.
Although most competitors will not be over concerned about how they perform today and can choose to use this day as a rest/recovery day and cruse the course within the time limit to save their energy for tomorrow’s mountain stage under team orders. But for the competitive rider every single second will count and the entire race will be flat out on their red zone limit.
The top 20 general classification contenders have a very mixed ability of time trialing but the main time trial specialists include:
Filippo Ganna / INEOS Grenadiers
Mikkel Bjerg / UAE Team Emirates
Magnus Sheffield / INEOS Grenadiers
Thymen Arensman / INEOS Grenadiers
Ethan Vernon / Israel - Premier Tech
Tobias Foss / INEOS Grenadiers
Daan Hoole / Lidl - Trek
Damiano Caruso / Bahrain - Victorious
I wondered about that. I think it may have been defensive - by controlling the race on the gravel sections they were protecting Thomas. If they hadn’t controlled those sections and chaos ensued, then Pogacar could have taken advantage and built a bigger lead. Does that theory hold up?
The 165 competitors start their time trial in order of slowest rider on GC first so the first rider away at 13:10 (local time) is Julius van den Berg Team dsm-firmenich PostNL who is the current ‘Lanterne rouge’
They leave the starter blocks for their individual race in one minute intervals - until the final top 15 riders on GC who leave in 3 minute intervals.
Geraint Thomas departure time is 16:21
and the 165th and final competitor to start: Tadej Pogačar at 16:24 (local time)
Well, no surprises who ended up winning the time trial
But perhaps the big surprise was the massive top GC and Youth Classification shake up!
A good day for the Aussies Ben O’Conner and Luke Platt both moving up to 4th & 5th place on GC, and 23 year old Luke winning the Maglia Bianco (white jersey) leaving Cian Uijtdebroeks trailing by 8 seconds.
Fabulous ride by 22 year old Italian Antonio Tiberi who moves up into the top ten GC and up to 3rd in Youth Classification trailing the new Maglia Bianco by 29 seconds.
Ineos Grenadiers had an almost perfect day, Filippo Ganna didn’t quite win the stage, but the team did achieve 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places which goes to show the firepower available in the team.
On a Grand Tour debut 22 year old Magnus Sheffield delivers a stunning ride to 3rd position, plus 24 year old Thymen Arensman who rises up to 5th place for the Maglia Bianco battle.
Who lost out the most on GC:
Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar - down 7 places to 12th
Jan Hirt (Cze) Soudal Quick-Step - down 4 places to 13th
Juan Pedro López (Esp) Lidl-Trek - down 8 paces to 15th
The first mountain stage the day after a hard trash time trial will be telling on those with unrecovered legs, and there will be others who may have taken it easy yesterday in view of a breakaway today.
A short distance of 152km but a lot of climbing mainly on a trio of not steep but very long categorised climbs, the final cat 1 having a relentless 14km average of 7% (with some little steeper bits up to 12%) and to end with a summit finish
Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, both at same time
Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, +2s
Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers
Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar
Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, all at same time
Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers, +11s
Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling, +13s
Alex Baudin (Fra) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, +21s
<<>>
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 8
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 28:14:42
Daniel Felipe Martínez (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe, +2-40
Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +2-58
Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +3-39
Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, +4-02
Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, +4-23
Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan, +5-15
Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar, +5-28
Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers, +5-30
Jan Hirt (Cze) Soudal Quick-Step, +5-53
POINTS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 8
Jonathan Milan (Ita) Lidl-Trek, 134 pts
Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecin Deceuninck, 97 pts
Tim Merlier (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, 89 pts
Olav Kooij (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, 61 pts
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, 57 pts
MOUNTAINS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 8
Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, 104 pts
Dani Martínez (Col), Bora-Hansgrohe, 52 pts
Simon Geschke (Ger) Cofidis, 36 pts
Lilian Calmejane (Fra) Intermarché-Wanty, 32 pts
Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, 22 pts
YOUTH CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 8
Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike in 28:18:44
Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, +21s
Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers, +1-28
Alex Baudin (Fra) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, +2-32
Filippo Zana (Ita) Jayco AlUla, +3-10
TEAMS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 8
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale in 85:03:12
Ineos Grenadiers, +1-20
Astana Qazaqstan, +9-23
Bora-Hansgrohe, +16:05
UAE Team Emirates, +18:06
<<>>
164 riders finished today’s Stage 8
<<>>
Due Maglioni (two jerseys)Tadej Pogačar wins again, and also doubles his Mountain Points - and because he can’t wear two jerseys; the Maglia Azzurra is lent out to be represented by whoever is 2nd in the KOM Classification - which tomorrow is Dani Martínez (Col), Bora-Hansgrohe. Lilian Calmejane drops to 4th place in the KOM battle.
Stage 8 also produced another ‘Maglia’ change, Luke Platt won the jersey yesterday but must of been unrecovered from his epic effort in the time trial, and plummets down 10 places to 11th place in the Youth Classification at over 20 minutes down. Cian Uijtdebroeks regains the Maglia Bianco. His 7th place in today’s stage also gains him a rise up the GC to 5th place
The Grenadiers are knocked off the top Team Classification by Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale in what is another very changeable contest.
(breakaway)
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE FIVE
Intermarché (not feeling well)
POINTS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 5
>>
Lilian Calmejane (Fra) Intermarché-Wanty
Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Bora-Hansgrohe
Israel - Premier Tech
Israel - Premier Tech
BORA - hansgrohe
Movistar, in 4:01:08
TEAMS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 5
(Alpecin Deceuninck) who gained an additional 17 points in the intermediate Sprints moves up to 2nd place in the Points Classification overtaking Tim Merlier who drops to 3rd (and he won’t like that one little bit).
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL who is the current ‘Lanterne rouge’
departure time is 16:21
at 16:24 (local time)
delivers a stunning ride to 3rd position, plus 24 year old Thymen Arensman 
> > ~