Vingegaard sets offpublished at 16:01 British Summer Time 9 July
The two-time Tour champion gets going. Will he end the day in yellow?
Summary
Stage five of Tour de France around Caen
Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel of Soudal-Quick Step wins
33km time trial crucial in the fight for yellow, which Tadej Pogacar takes after finishing second
Vingegaard sets offpublished at 16:01 British Summer Time 9 July
Evenepol second fastest at first checkpublished at 15:59 British Summer Time 9 July
Remco Evenepoel is a couple of seconds off at the first time check. But that timne was set by Luke Plapp. He is quicker than Edoardo Affini there and will likely be measuring his effort.
Vauquelin gets goingpublished at 15:54 British Summer Time 9 July
French rider Kevin Vauquelin sets off to a huge cheer from the crowd.
Postpublished at 15:53 British Summer Time 9 July
Primoz Roglic trails by 30' seconds at the first checkpoint.
The chances of make that up I would suggest are slim to non existent.
Meanwhile, Joao Almeida is on the road. The Portuguese rider is known for being good when the roads ramp up but he is a very decent time trialist as well.
Evenepoel gets under waypublished at 15:46 British Summer Time 9 July
Remco Evenepoel heads down the start ramp. He has some serious time to make up on Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar to get himself back into contention in the GC race.
Postpublished at 15:44 British Summer Time 9 July
Jonas Vingegaard has an ice jacket on as he gets ready to get going in around 12 minutes or so.
Tadej Pogacar is warming up at the start, underneath some water sprays. It is 23°C today in the north west of France.
Postpublished at 15:40 British Summer Time 9 July
Wout van Aert is the best part of four minutes down as he rolls over the finishing line.
He took that very easy.
Blackmore gets goingpublished at 15:36 British Summer Time 9 July
It is boiling hot out on the course and British rider Joseph Blackmore, who is makin g his debut at the Tour gets under way with a base layer on and it did not look like an aerodynamic addition.
In contrast, Primoz Roglic is waiting to go off with an ice jacket on.
We’re down to the last 16 riders now, who all start at two-minute intervals.
'The atmosphere was incredible'published at 15:31 British Summer Time 9 July
Image source, Getty ImagesGeraint Thomas speaking to ITV 4: "I started trying to do the best time I could but after 10km or so I know I wasn't quick enough so shut it down a bit and just save my legs a bit.
"It's a tough start and the run-in is pretty fast as well. The atmosphere was incredible, it's a time trial in the Tour, open plains, flags blowing, fans going crazy, I will certainly miss that."
Van Aert & Thomas off the pacepublished at 15:20 British Summer Time 9 July
Wout van Aert and Geraint Thomas are currently out on the course.
Both have previously won ITT's in the Tour de France. Neither look likely to do so today mind.
Van Aert is well down on the first two time checks and the Welshman finishes a fraction over two minutes adrift on Edoardo Affini's mark.
The 2018 champion is provisionally in 16th place, with all the big hitters to come.
Affini in the hot seatpublished at 15:14 British Summer Time 9 July
Image source, Getty ImagesAt present Visma-Lease a Bike's Italian time trialist Edoardo Affini remains in the hot seat and 37minutes and 15 seconds is still the time to beat.
Postpublished at 15:13 British Summer Time 9 July
Image source, Getty ImagesRight without further ado let's check out what's happening on the road...
General classification after stage fourpublished at 15:08 British Summer Time 9 July
This is all set to change...
1. Mathieu Van der Poel (Ned - Alpecin-Deceuninck) 16hrs 46mins 00secs
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) Same time
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +8secs
4. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) +19secs
5. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +26secs
6. Enric Mas (Spa-Movistar) +48secs
7. Oscar Onley (GB/Picnic PostNL) +55secs
8. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) Same time
9. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) +58secs
10. Mattias Skjelmose (Den/Lidl-Trek) +1min 02secs
Evenepoel the man to beatpublished at 15:04 British Summer Time 9 July
Image source, Getty ImagesRemco Evenepoel is clearly the man to beat in stage five. The Olympic and world time trial champion was superb at the Dauphine where he took 20 seconds out of Jonas Vingegaard and was 48 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar.
And with no Filippo Ganna or Stefan Bissegger after their stage one crashes it is hard to look beyond the big three.
Pogacar apparently tried out a new riding position at the Dauphine so it is hard to imagine him losing quite as much time again.
With Mathieu van der Poel unlikely to contend the yellow jersey is very much up for grabs
Selected start timespublished at 15:02 British Summer Time 9 July
Image source, Getty ImagesHere are some of the key start times for today's time trial:
- 14:58:30 - Wout van Aert
- 15:04:30 - Sepp Kuss
- 15:24:00 - Florian Lipowitz
- 15:32:00 - Joseph Blackmore
- 15:36:00 - Primoz Roglic
- 15:44:00 - Remco Evenepoel
- 15:46:00 - Joao Almeida
- 15:48:00 - Oscar Onley
- 15:52:00 - Kevin Vauquelin
- 15:54:00 - Matteo Jorgenson
- 15:56:00 - Jonas Vingegaard
- 15:58:00 - Tadej Pogacar
- 16:00:00 - Mathieu van der Poel
Postpublished at 15:00 British Summer Time 9 July
Image source, ASOThis is the first of two individual time trials in the Tour and is on the wide and completely flat roads of Caen.
The strongest rouleurs should be in their element on a stage designed for time-trial specialists like world and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel.
Bonjourpublished at 14:55 British Summer Time 9 July
Image source, Getty ImagesAfter four eventful days, we have hit the first individual time trial in this year's Tour de France.
The race of truth is the first big opportunity for the general classification riders to lay down a marker so this should be intriguiing viewing.
At 33km it is also the longest opening-week individual time trial since 2012 and that should pronounce any time gaps between the favourites.