Tadej Pogacar wins Tour de France time trial; Geraint Thomas loses time and Mathieu van der Poel keeps yellow

A battling performance from Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and the flying Dutchman, against all the odds, keeps hold of that leader's yellow jersey after setting the fifth fastest time on the day – 32min 31.82sec, 30.99sec slower that stage winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates). Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), the European and Swiss time trial champion, was second fastest while Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), the young Dane who has enjoyed a great season so far with stage wins at the UAE Tour and Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali along with the overall at the Italian race, again impressed with a third place. 

Vingegaard moves up 15 spots on general classification to eighth, two places higher than team-mate Primoz Roglic who is now 10th.

As predicted at the top of the day, there was a bit of a shake-up in the general classification. Although not shown below, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) moves up six places, but after losing 1min 18sec on the stage to Pogacar now trails the defending champion by 1min 46sec and is 10sec behind team-mate Richard Carapaz. 

Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quick Step) keeps top spot in the points competition and will wear green on the road to Châteauroux on Thursday, where he won his first Tour stage back in 2008.

Defending champion Tadej will again wear the maillot blanc, or the white jersey, as best young rider. Vingegaard moves up to second in the competition, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) drops to third.

There were no changes in the mountains classification, and so for the fifth successive day Ide Schelling (Bora-Hasgrohe) will be dressed in the maillot à pois, a competition the Dutchman has led for four days – he wore it on behalf of his compatriot Van der Poel for one stage.

Julian Alaphilippe completes his race, but the Deceuninck-Quick Step rider is some way off the pace finishing 1min 10.90sec behind Tadej Pogacar. Richard Carapaz loses 1min 43.73sec on Pogacar, but gains on Wilco Kelderman, and should stay in the overall top 10. 

Not entirely sure what happened to the Dutchman, but he's not flying today. On the contrary, the Bora-Hansgrohe rider finishes 1min 48sec down on Tadej Pogacar. Wout van Aert, meanwhile, is fourth fastest on the day.

The big question now is: can Mathieu van der Poel keep hold of the maillot jaune? If he does then the Dutchman should be able to wear it all the way to Sunday's stage where there is a smattering of category one climbs where, you would imagine, the climbers would put him to the sword. 

An unbelievable performance from the defending champion who has set the fastest time of the day which will, surely, secure the Slovenian his first stage win at this year's Tour de France. Mathieu van der Poel, meanwhile, is flying and it looks like he will hold onto his yellow jersey by around 15sec.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->Richard Carapaz is holding around the same pace, but has lost around a minute so far today to Tadej Pogacar who is on course to win today's stage which will propel him up the overall standing and, in all probability, make him the highest placed riders of the main general classification contenders.

Mathieu van der Poel who is riding the longest time trial of his career, passes through the first time split on exactly the same time as his lifelong rival Wout van Aert which also happens to be the second fastest of the day. As it stands, I think. Van der Poel will be keeping hold of that yellow jersey.

Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) sets the 12ths fastest time at the first split, Wilco Kelderman is 19th fastest. Tadej Pogacar, meanwhile, is 17sec faster than European time trial champion Stefan Küng at the second time split. Wow, another unbelievable performance from the Slovenian.

Richard Carapaz is over half a minute slower than Tadej Pogacar at the first split. Not great news for the Ineos Grenadiers rider, but that's roughly the same as his team-mate Geraint Thomas.

Wout van Aert is second to Tadej Pogacar at the first split, while the Slovenian may be riding into the leader's yellow jersey today if he can sustain this pace. Mathieu van der Poel has yet to reach his first time split though so difficult to judge just yet.

Tadej Pogacar is absolutely flying, the Slovenian is the fastest at the first time split. Next to reach that key marker is Wout van Aert. David Gaudu, meanwhile, is losing time. No huge surprise, the Groupama-FDJ rider is built for the climbs.

Geraint Thomas has finished his time trial in one piece, though the Welshman loses around 35sec to Primoz Roglic which means he drops below the Slovenian on general classification and, by my calculations, now trails him by 7sec.

Wout van Aert is out on the course, as is Wilco Kelderman, Richard Carapaz and  Julian Alaphilippe. Next up will be Mathieu van der Poel who, as race leader, is the last man down the ramp. The next 30 minutes may not prove decisive in the final outcome of the maillot jaune, but it will certainly give us a better indication about the form of the general classification riders.

Primoz Roglic has completed his time trial and the Jumbo-Visma team leader sets the fourth fastest time of the day, finishing the course in 32min 44.71sec – 25.61sec off the pace. I suspect the Slovenian will be gaining time on Geraint Thomas today, but the Welshman has yet to complete his race. 

Through he second time split and the Welshman is around 24sec slower than Primoz Roglic who is doing brilliantly today. Roglic's team-mate Jonas Vingegaardsets the second fastest time of the day! And now Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) is out on the road. 

Rigoberto Urán is doing a really strong ride, the Colombian is fifth fastest at the first split around 4sec slower than Primoz Roglic. Next down the ramp is Nairo Quintana, while Bauke Mollema, Sergio Higuita, Alexey Lutsenko, David Gaudu and Pierre Latour are also now out on the course.

Primoz Roglic is holding that pace and is still fourth fastest, riding at a shade below 50kmh (49.976kmh).

Geraint Thomas is losing time here today. The Ineos Grenadiers rider was 18th fastest at the first time split, around 19sec slower than Primoz Roglic. The Welshman is taking the corners gingerly, making sure he stays upright.

Jonas Vingegaard, another Dane who is not bad at these time trials, is going steadily and is also second fastest at tye second time split. Kasper Asgreen, however, has lost a few seconds and is down to third as it stands.

Rigoberto Urán ( EF Education-Nippo), who won the hilly time trial at the recent Tour de Suisse, has got his race under way. 

Primoz Roglic passes through the first of two intermediate time splits and is doing really well. Just 6sec down on Kasper Asgreen  which would suggest he is not hurting as much as you would expects following his horrible fall during Monday's stage.

Kasper Asgreen is flying and is fastest at the first time split, while Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) is second fastest. Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) is out on the course. 

Primoz Roglic has rolled down the starting ramp and has his time trial under way. How will the battered and bruised Slovenian deal with his injuries? Richie Porte (Ineos Grenadiers) has completed his race and impressive it was too. The Australian is only the third rider today to go under the 33-minute mark – 32min 55.80sec – with the third fastest time of the day, 36.70sec slower that Stefan Küng who is currently sat in the hotseat.

Kasper Asgreen, the Danish national time trial champion, is out on the course, one that suits the amiable Deceuninck-Quick Step rider. But will he bring home the bacon today, or can Stefan Küng hold on for the win? Still to come, remember, is Wout van Aert and the likes of general classification contenders Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pocacar and Geraint Thomas.

Stefan Küng, resplendent in his European time trial champion's jersey, has sets a new fastest time of 32min 19.10sec with the Swiss becoming the first rider to go faster than 50kmh (50.500kmh). 

Bernhard Eisel, the former professional working for Eurosport, said a few minutes ago that the Groupama-FDJ rider was powering along at 60kmh on one stretch of road that was going into a headwind.

Neilson Powless appears to have burned himself off too soon and the young American has dropped down the standings. By contrast, Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck-Quick Step) has set the new fastest time at the finish... but Stefan Küng was fastest at both the first and second time splits. 

The spectator who triggered one of the worst multi-rider crashes in recent cycling history on the opening stage of the 108th Tour de France on Saturday has been arrested and placed in custody, according to RTL. More news here . . .

Richie Porteis a decent time trial rider but will the Australian be going full gas, or will he hold something back in order to help Richard Carapaz and Geraint Thomas later in the race?

Miguel Ángel López (Movistar) is out on the course and the Colombian who has not always enjoyed the best of fortune in the time trial, will be hoping to do a decent race. 

Another EF Education-Nippo is out on the course, and another rider dressed in pink – Neilson Powless – is absolutely motoring. The young American who is making his second Tour appearance, was fastest at the first intermediate time split. Wow. By the way, the rain has stopped for now and the roads appear to have dried up.

Oh dear, I completely forgot that Stefan Küng was also European time trial champion and so the Swiss has the white and blue jersey of Europe's best tester on his shoulders. 

There are some big crowds out on the course today which is on the home turf of the Groupama-FDJ squad. One of their riders, Stefan Küng, is on the shortlist of favourites for the stage.

It will be interesting to see how Küng, the Swiss national time trial champion, is received by the crowds after his little joke with team-mates the morning after France's penalty shoot-out defeat in the European Championship when he felt the need to put his Swiss gilet on over his team jersey. One assumes they will see it for what it was, a little bit of light-hearted ribbing.

Having set the second fastest time at the second time split around 10km from the finish, Magnus Cort (EF Education-Nippo) manages to hold on despite a few tricky twists and turns – particularly in the wet – in the finale bump team-mate Stefan Bissegger ​down to third.

Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) completed his race a short while ago, finishing 4min 9.21sec slower than Mikkel Bjerg. Geoghegan Hart, of course, has been selected to represent Great Britain in the time trial at next month's Olympic Games in Tokyo and so British fans will be hoping today was a case of him holding a little back in reserve to help team-mates Richard Carapaz and Geraint Thomas once the race reaches the more mountainous terrain.

Geoghegan Hart's team-mate Luke Rowe, who was faster than the Londoner, has been speaking with Eurosport and told them that he was speaking with Geraint Thomas as he rode around the course. Rowe described the course as one for the 'power' riders and said that he was giving Thomas some last-minute tips on how to get round the course safely. Thomas, by the way, will start his race at 3,16pm (BST). 

Disappointment for the Swiss rider Stefan Bissegger who is second fastest on the day so far, 21.09sec down on Mikkel Bjerg.

Omar Fraile(Astana-Premier Tech) does a decent ride, finishing in fifth place as it stands 45.12sec adrift of provisional leader Mikkel Bjerg. By the way, we have just had  better picture of Brandon McNulty an d it looks like he has hit the deck, no doubt the cause of that bike change I mentioned. That's not great fro the young American, nor his team-mate Tadej Pogacar who will be hoping for some help in the mountains from the 23-year-old.

Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), the talented American rider who is here in support of team-mate Tadej Pogacar, has taken a bike change. The rain is still falling and this could have a huge say in today's stage. Stefan Bissegger has just passed through the second of two intermediate time splits with the second fastest time of the day. The Swiss, however, is 19.51sec  down on Mikkel Bjerg. Bissegger, for those newish to the sport or those that don't follow every single race in the calendar, is a first-year professional who already has two WorldTour stage wins on his palmarès: a time trial at Paris-Nice and lumpy stage at this moth's Tour de Suisse.

As it stands 91 riders have either completed their time trials for the day, or are out on the course as I type.

Riders who have finished: Amund Grondahl Jansen, Clément Russo, Daniel McLay, Ide Schelling, Roger Kluge, Marco Haller, Tony Martin, Reto Hollenstein, Marc Hirschi, Mads Pedersen, Rick Zabel, Chris Froome, Jasper De Buyst, Edward Theuns, Bryan Coquard, Omer Goldstein, Mike Teunissen, Sepp Kuss, Georg Zimmermann, Casper Pedersen, Pierre-Luc Périchon, Harry Sweeny, André Greipel, Jérémy Cabot, Mark Cavendish, Mikkel Bjerg, Daniel Oss, Luke Durbridge, Tim Declercq, Christopher Juul-Jensen, Nils Politt, Cees Bol, Arnaud Démare, Tosh Van Der Sande, Dmitriy Gruzdev, Tim Merlier, Jesús Herrada, Danny van Poppel, Simon Clarke, Nicholas Dlamini, Anthony Perez, Jorge Arcas, Petr Vakoc, Lukas Pöstlberger, Thomas De Gendt, Michael Morkov, Jelle Wallays, Jacopo Guarnieri, Maxime Chevalier, Max Walscheid, Jonas Koch, Miles Scotson, Luke Rowe, Davide Ballerini, Nacer Bouhanni, Lorenzo Rota, Sean Bennett, Jasper Philipsen, Carlos Barbero, Benoît Cosnefroy, Michael Schär, Jonas Rutsch, Fred Wright, Bruno Armirail, Imanol Erviti, Kristian Sbaragli, Nans Peters.

On the road: Victor Campenaerts, Ion Izagirre, Vegard Stake Laengen, Loïc Vliegen, Warren Barguil, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Jasper Stuyven, Patrick Konrad, Silvan Dillier, Dorian Godon, Jonathan Castroviejo, Omar Fraile, Carlos Verona, Valentin Madouas, Cyril Gautier, Cristián Rodríguez, Stefan Bissegger, Christophe Laporte, Brandon McNulty, Brent Van Moer, Rafal Majka, Michael Woods, Nils Eekhoff and Dylan van Baarle.

Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates), who won the under-23 title on a rain soaked day at the Harrogate world championships in 2019, is currently sitting pretty in the hotseat having set the fastest time of 33min 1.05sec (49.428kmh), though one of the day's favourites Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo) has his race under way. Unfortunately for the Swiss, rain has started to fall on the course and the 23-year-old neo-pro has already had a scare on a right-hander when he briefly lost his front wheel before saving it at the last. It was a fine save from the Swiss, though probably not the best of the week.

It is the first individual time trial at this year's Tour, and one on paper for the natural testers. Long, but not ridiculously long. Rolling, but not hilly. There is enough in the 27.2km route from Changé to Laval to make this a technical challenge for anybody with designs on winning the stage, or improving their position in the standings and so, in theory, it should be a fascinating afternoon of racing. Not La Planche des Belles Filles-type fascinating, but it will certainly be interesting to see how the likes of the battered and bruised Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) cope on their insanely uncomfortable-looking time trial bikes.

The stage winner, most likely, will come from a list including Stefan Bississger (EF Education-Nippo), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), while a handful of others, including defending champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), may also stand a decent chance of winning. Ordinarily, of course, Thomas would be one of the favourites for the stage win but having dislocated his shoulder during Monday's stage one suspects the Welshman will be in an awful lot of pain which does not help when you are trying to make your frontal area as small and aerodynamic as possible, which is not necessarily the most natural of riding positions.

Most are expecting the overall lead will change hands later on this afternoon, while with 20 points up for grabs in the race for the green jersey we may also see Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step), who is no slouch when up against the clock and won a Tour time trial in 2019, regain the maillot vert off team-mate Mark Cavendish.

Weather-wise, there is a possibility of some showers which will make riders and their teams very nervous, especially on the circuitous course's numerous 90º turns.

As is traditional with time trials in stage races, riders will roll down the starting ramp in Changé in reverse order of their standing in the general classification, and so Amund Grondahl Jansen (BikeExchange), who starts the day in 177th spot 35min 33sec behind the maillot jaune, sets off first at 11.15am (BST). The last man to get his time trial under way will be race leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) who sets off on his 'race of truth' at 3.50pm. The full running order of every rider can be found below – note the times are central European times, so if you are in the UK take an hour off. 

 . . . can be watched here . . .

Hello and welcome to our live rolling blog from stage five at the Tour de France, the 27.2-kilometre time trial from Changé to Laval.

It was the comeback of all comebacks. Mark Cavendish rolled back the years in Fougères on Tuesday afternoon to not only win his first stage at this year's Tour, but also his first stage at the world's biggest bike race since 2016 and his first in the colours of Deceuninck-Quick Step since 2015. After his well-documented problems on and off the bike – his battle with the Epstein-Barr virus and clinical depression and an unhappiness with his team and equipment, as he alluded to in yesterday's post-race press conference – Cavendish's career appeared over at the end of last year. The then 35-year-old, however, was handed a lifeline by Patrick Lefevere and Deceuninck-Quick Step. And now, against all the odds, he is back. Back to winning, back to looking his brilliant best and back to batting away questions about Eddy Merckx and that record of 34 stage wins at the Tour.

Watching Cavendish duck, weave and power his way towards the line it was as if we had been transported back in time, to an era when the idea of a British rider winning a grand tour was fanciful. Back to a time when the very notion of a Briton winning a stage at the Tour, or the Giro d'Italia or Vuelta a España for that matter, was the holy grail itself. As Cavendish was quick to remind people on Tuesday afternoon, winning a single stage at the Tour can be life-changing, the Manxman in no mood to discuss that Merckx record.

"I spoke to Tim Merlier yesterday and said 'you think your career changed by winning a stage of the Giro, win a stage of the Tour you'll see your life change'", Cavendish said. "And that's with one Tour de France stage win. I think it's only been half an hour since I've won and you've already forgotten how big it is to win one Tour stage if you're asking questions like that [about the Merckx record]."

Regardless of whether he does win another stage or, whisper it, manage to match or even eclipse Merckx's record – and the stars are starting to align in his favour – Cavendish's comeback must surely, as colleague Tom Cary wrote last night, rank as one of the greatest in sports history. It was emotional; a victory that send shockwaves through the world of cycling. But not the UK media, it seems.

Having looked at this morning's front pages it would appear that Cavendish's phenomenal win does not warrant a single mention – plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose – which although is a little disheartening, is not wholly surprising. After all, it is not every day the England football team win a major international tournament.

Anyway, after finishing stage four safely Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) kept hold of top spot in the general classification and so will wear his second maillot jaune, or leader's yellow jersey, during today's stage. Technically speaking the Dutchman, who leads Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) by 8sec and Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) by 31sec, will probably be dressed in a yellow skinsuit for today's time trial but that just doesn't sound the same as saying he will be in the maillot jaune.

As you may have worked out from the above picture, Cavendish also took top spot in the points classification thanks to taking third in yesterday's intermediate sprint coupled with the stage win. 

It is a case of as you were in the mountains classification as there were no classified climbs yesterday, and it will remain the same until tomorrow and so Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe) will, providing he finishes today's time trial safely and within the lie limit, be wearing the maillot à pois, or polka dot jersey, again on Thursday.

There were no changes either in the upper echelons of the young rider classification and so defending champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) keeps hold of the maillot blanc, or the white jersey.