Tour de France 2019: stage five – live!

Julian Alaphilippe: The talk on Eurosport at the moment is about whether or not Julian Alaphilippe and his Deceuninck–Quick-Step teammates will be happy to protect the yellow jersey today or try to take the stage win as well. Irish cycling legend Sean Kelly thinks it depends on how the stage pans out. He reckons that if people start attacking early, Alaphilippe won’t try to contest the stage as trying to close down these attacks will expend too much energy.

But Kelly adds the caveat that if the Frenchman can “get a sniff of the stage win with two kilometres to go” his natural instinct will be to go for it it and he won’t be able to help himself. The gap between the breakaway quartet and the bunch is 2min 18sec and the men in front are on the second classified climb of the day, the category two Cote du Hautkoenigsbourg.

An email: “It’s often overlooked, but the team competition can be just as exciting as the individual quest for glory,” writes David Alderton. “It’s a bit early to say for sure, but this year’s could be an absolute corker with quite the number of on form riders across the teams. Given that, I reckon Ineos, FFJ and Mitchelton-Scott will do superbly.” What? No Astana? No Lotto Soudal? No Jumbo Visma? I haven’t been following cycling closely enough this season to venture a worthwhile opinion, to be honest.

88km to go: The gap is out to 2min 13sec as the riders approach the feed zone. My own Sky Pro Cycling Gatorade bottle is empty, so I’m going to go fill it up as I don’t have support staff to hand me a fresh one. Here, in case you missed it yesterday, is a little insight into what goes into those musettes the cyclists are handed by their soigneurs.

Hats off to Marcus Burghardt The German Bora Hansgrohe rider took a solitary point in today’s intermediate sprint and to celebrate, here is some footage of him being brought down by the world’s dopiest but hardest Labrador 12 years ago. Just look at that front wheel buckle. I wonder if the dog’s still around today? He’d be quite elderly at this stage.

94km to go: The gap goes out to 2min 05sec, with the breakaway quartet travelling at 57km per hour, while their chasers are going at a more sedate 55.

99km to go: Peter Sagan and Michael Matthews, both of whom will fancy their chances of winning today’s stage, are currently deep in conversation as they ride along. I don’t know if it’s just me who’s noticed this and I could be wrong, but Sagan has looked just a little bit “off” in the early stages of this year’s Tour judging by his usual ridiculously high standards of consistency.

102km to go: Elia Viviani is best of the rest in the intermediate sprint and is followed over the line by Peter Sagan and Michael Matthews.

103km to go: Uncontested, Simon Clarke sprints away from Tim Wellens, Mads Schmidt Wurtz, Toms Skujins and Simon Clarke to win the intermediate sprint and trouser the 20 points and €1,500 that come as his reward. That’ll go into the team kitty.

106km to go: Just as Valverde is about to rejoin the peloton, he’s forced to stop again and get a replacement bike. He seemed to be having problems with his rear derailleur, which sounds painful.

Today’s intermediate sprint will take place in Heiligenstein, in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France, which is 104 kilometres from the finish line. With 109 kilometres to go, Alejandro Valverde is forced to stop by a puncture. He gets a new wheel and sets off to catch up with the rest of his colleagues. The gap is 1min 36sec between the breakaway and the bunch.

115km to go: The gap from the breakaway to the bunch, where Team Sunweb and Bora Hansgrohe are doing the heavy lifting, is at a very manageable 1min 18sec.

Global Cycling Network: Your reporter has to pull into the ditch, dismount and have a quick comfort break, so here to keep you amused during my short absence, are the GCN to take you behind the scenes at the Tour in the build-up to Saturday’s Grand Depart.

13okm to go: Having asked his travelling companions nicely, Tim Wellens is allowed to be first over the first of four classified climbs to be negotiated today, the Cat Three Cote de Grendelbruch and takes two of the three King of the Mountains points available. Toms Skujins was second over and took one.

133km to go: The gap between the four-man breakaway and the peloton is 1min 54sec, but Peter Sagan’s Bora Hansgrohe team are at the front of the bunch and keeping the escapees on a tight rein. Remember, Tim Wellens, who is in the breakaway, is wearing the King of the Mountains jersey and will be hoping to hoover up a few more points this afternoon.

139km to go: The race has settled down after a frantic start, which gives me time to check the General Classification. The Australian rider, Simon Clarke, is the highest placed of those in the breakaway. He’s currently 73rd in the standings, 5min 04sec behind the maillot jaune Julian Alaphilippe.

146km to go: Four men escape, while plenty more who will have been ordered to make sure they got in any breakaway today will be resigned to having to face the wrath of angry directeurs sportifs later this evening. Chapeau then, to Messrs Wellens, Schmidt Wurtz, Skujins and Clarke.

153km to go: We finally appear to have our breakaway group. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Mads Schmidt Wurtz (Katusha Alpecin), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Simon Clarke (EF Education First) make a break for it and are allowed to bolt into the distance.

154km to go: Our intrepid trio continue their escape bid, but are finally caught again. Thomas De Gent has expended plenty of energy in this stage already but is still in the pack.

157km to go: Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Jan Tratnik (Bahrain Merida) and Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) open a gap of about 10 seconds on the chasing pack.

160km to go: It’s been a frantic first 15 kilometres, particularly at the front of the peloton. Thomas De Gent leads another jailbreak with two co-conspirators, but it doesn’t look like his third attempt to escape will be any more successful than his previous two.

162km to go: Patrick Konrad (Bora Hansgrohe), Nils Politt (Katusha Alpecin), Anthony Perez (Cofidis) and Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), among others, form an eight breakaway but are caught before I can finish identifying them and typing out their names. We’re still waiting for the day’s first successful escape.

167km to go: Wearing the polka dot jersey, Tim Wellens is one of four riders who puts some distance between themselves and the bunch. Aime De Gent and Alex Gougeard are with him.

168km to go: Thomas De Gent makes another escape bid but doesn’t get away. The bunch remains intact, but is mightily strung out towards the front as assorted riders put the hammer down.

169km to go: Unwilling to let the breakaway escape, the peloton reels them in before they can snap the line and escape.

171km to go: The race has yet to settle and our seven breakaway riders have just been joined by an eighth, while four others are still trying to bridge.

174km to go: Seven riders have escaped and three others are trying to bridge the gap from the peloton.

They’re on the move: The riders have set off from Saint-Dié-des-Vosges , where they were bid adieu by a huge crowd. Christian Prudhomme has emerged from the sunroof of his red Skoda, waved his yellow flag and racing has begun. Thomas De Gent and six other riders have immediately tried to make a break for it.

No abandonments so far: With 650.6 kilometres behind the field after four stages, every single one of the 176 riders who started the 106th Tour de France on Saturday is all still racing.

Mitchelton Scott’s stage four diary

Stage three’s diary was soundtracked by David Gray and today it’s Razorlight. Whoever is in charge of this Aussie team’s social media department needs to have a word with themselves.

Today’s roll-out: The field will get moving out of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges at 12.25pm (BST) before getting the signal to begin racing from race director Christian Prudhomme some 10 minutes or so later.

Lance Armstrong’s The Move podcast

He’s certainly not everybody’s cup of tea, but Lance Armstrong’s stage-by-stage analysis on his Tour de France podcast is well worth the time of those prepared to look beyond his well documented past and accept that he might actually know what he’s talking about. Armstrong isn’t afraid to pull punches in his daily chats with his former team-mate George Hincapie and pal JB Hager. It often makes for very interesting listening indeed.

The Breakaway

Orla Chennaoui was posing the questions as Adam Blythe and Brian Smith picked over the bones of stage four on Eurosport yesterday. It was a show that will not have made for pleasant viewing for Team Jumbo-Visna and their sprinter Dylan Groenewegen, who got quite the savaging.

Stage three review

Elia Viviani sprinted to his maiden Tour de France stage victory, Julian Alaphilippe retained the yellow jersey and defending champion Geraint Thomas played down what some have described as the very sloppy loss of five seconds on the previous day.

From William Fotheringham’s stage-by-stage guide: Best described as Vosges-lite, skirting three sides of the massif with two second and two third category climbs to shake up the pack. There is a good chance that an early escape will stay away today as keeping a team chasing will be hard in the tough finale – two climbs in the final 35km – while behind the move the peloton will be whittled down to 30 or 40. A good day for a strong breakaway rider such as Thomas De Gendt or Matej Mohoric, one where the favourites will want to avoid losing time or expending too much energy, with day six in mind.