Olav Kooij won the fifth stage of the Tour de France in Pau on Wednesday, taking the first sprint finish of the race after a crash just over five kilometres from the line turned the run-in into a scramble. The Dutch debutant from Visma-Lease a Bike surged clear in the Place de Verdun to beat Max Kanter with ease, while Tim Merlier was third.
The result matters because this was the first flat-stage test of the Tour and it ended in disorder, not the clean drag race sprinters wanted. Kooij, who won three stages in last year’s Tour of Britain, used the opening to stamp himself on the race early, and Jasper Philipsen had to settle for fifth after saying he “didn’t have the legs.”
The late crash came in the narrow streets of Pau with many riders still packed together, and race radio had not indicated any DNFs when the stage was being written up. The yellow jersey was not in the front group after the incident, but the first group of sprinters still finished 14 seconds ahead, leaving no change in the general classification at the time of reporting.
That is where the uncertainty sits. The finish may have been neutralised because of the crash outside Pau, but the listed outcome still stood as Kooij’s stage win, with the bunch split and the GC contenders kept clear of the immediate damage. For now, the race moves on to the Tourmalet, where the next stage will ask far more of the overall leaders than any sprint could.
