Australian Jai Hindley won the Tour de France’s fifth stage, the first in the mountains, and took over the yellow jersey as overall race leader.
Hindley, who won last year’s Giro d’Italia, prevailed Wednesday by 32 seconds over a group that included 2022 Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard.
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He took over the yellow jersey from Brit Adam Yates, who finished 1:38 behind. He became the first Australian to lead the Tour since Rohan Dennis in 2015.
Hindley now leads the overall standings by 47 seconds over Vingegaard. He went into the Tour considered one of the top overall contenders behind favorites Vingegaard and 2020 and 2021 Tour winner Tadej Pogacar.
“I didn’t really know what to expect, it’s my first Tour,” said Hindley, who passed on defending his Giro title to put all his eggs in the Tour basket. “It’s hard to come here with such massive ambitions or any, but for sure I wanted to come here, be competitive and have some form of success.”
Pogacar lost time Wednesday and is now 1:40 behind Hindley. Vingegaard sped away from Pogacar on the last climb.
Vingegaard perfectly timed his attack after American teammate Sepp Kuss imposed a fast and exhausting tempo that took its toll on Pogacar, who found out after the finish that his girlfriend had crashed during the women’s Giro in Italy, and may have suffered a concussion.
“It’s a bit more of a sad news than losing 50 seconds to Jonas, or 1 minute,” Pogacar said.
Vingegaard dethroned Pogacar last year and arrived in top form to defend his title. Pogacar, who rides for UAE Team Emirates, was untouchable earlier this year but a crash two months ago that left him with a broken wrist requiring surgery has hampered his preparations for the Tour.
“The high mountains have spoken the truth,” UAE team principal Mauro Gianetti said. “Vingegaard is at the top and Tadej has yet to reach his best. It was only the fifth stage, hopefully we will improve, there is a lot of work to do.”
The Tour continues Thursday in the Pyrenees with stage six, the first of four summit finishes, live on Peacock and USA Network.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.