Remco Evenepoel goes supersonic on Stage 5 time trial at Tour de France as Tadej Pogacar grabs yellow and Jonas Vingegaard ships time

Tadej Pogacar is into the yellow jersey for the first time at the 2025 Tour de France as Remco Evenepoel produced a mesmerising individual time trial to win Stage 5 in Caen. Evenepoel needed to overturn a 58-second deficit on Pogacar to take yellow, but the defending champion produced a blistering ride of his own to seize the overall lead as his big rival Jonas Vingegaard shipped buckets of time.

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) tamed a headwind to win a dramatic Stage 5 individual time trial at the Tour de France - but his bid for the yellow jersey failed as Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took over at the top of the general classification.

Evenepoel clocked 36'42" over the 33km flat course to unseat long-time hotseat leader Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike), but Pogacar finished just 16 seconds down on him to steal yellow from Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck.)

A surprising but impressive fifth place from Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea B&B Hotels) was enough to bounce him up to a podium, and raise French hopes, as two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) leaked over a minute.

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The 33km, pan-flat course may have been designed with Evenepoel in mind. The out-and-back map was made of multiple fast turns and long straights on which to build power and maintain it.

The world champion clearly thought so, setting stratospheric expectations in suggesting the night before that he might go fast enough to move into yellow. That would mean gaining more than 59 seconds on Pogacar and Van der Poel.

'I couldn't have gone any faster' - Evenepoel savours dominant time trial win

Video credit: TNT Sports

Luke Plapp (Jayco-Alula) went out hard, setting what would hold up as the fastest first sector all day, but it meant he did not have much left at the end.

The Australian, who has taken a few high-profile TT tumbles in recent years, took the final few kilometres with caution, and in so doing shipped sufficent time to lose the lead to Ivan Romeo (Movistar) who risked it all for a fast time.

As good a time as the Spaniard set, it was not fast enough to keep European champion Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) out of the hotseat. The Italian was 30 seconds quicker than Romeo at the finish for a benchmark time of 37'15.

For most of the next three hours, French TT champion Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R) was the only rider to give Affini cause for concern, but lost out on the line by two seconds.

Remco Evenepoel celebrates his stage victory at the Tour de France on Wednesday

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For the rest of the afternoon Affini saw riders fall short, some by a lot, others by more, but knew he couldn't get too comfortable while he waited for the final four.

Evenepoel, in ninth place at the start of the day, was the ninth from last rider down the ramp. It appeared briefly as if the conditions might have gone against him, with the wind having changed, and for the first three splits he was down on the fastest time.

As he came into the home straight with the clock still in green, it was clear he had paced the ride to perfection, as he beat Affiini at the finish by 33 seconds.

Pogacar was briefly in touch with Evenepoel's time but dropped a dozen or so seconds over the latter stages of the course. The Slovenian's ride was nonetheless a marked improvment on his Dauphine performance, in which he dropped around a minute over a much shorter distance. He was also likely more concerned with how he fared against Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike.)

He needn't have been. It turned out to be a difficult day for the two-time Tour champion, who looked uncomfortable as he leaked 1'21" on stage winner Evenepoel and fell to fourth place overall.

Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) put in a valiant defence of his yellow jersey, but has likely enjoyed his last day in the race lead, and will now switch to stage hunting, as the true general classification battle gathers pace.

'The gap is temporary' - Pogacar plays down advantage over Vingegaard

Video credit: TNT Sports

Afterwards Evenepoel paid tribute to Pogacar's performance which, he said, was "a step forward after the Dauphine time trial, and it's why he's the guy to beat."

In contrast to the day before, when he set expecations of himself extremely high, he was careful to caution against extrapolating too much from the victory, with all the high mountain stages still lying ahead:

"I'm very happy with my performance and I just have to keep it up. Everyone knows what coming up next week and the week after but it's very nice to take a stage win."

After only five stages there are just three riders within a minute of the race lead. The Tour de France continues on Thursday in Normandy, with the second longest of the entire race, a lumpy classics-style route from Bayeux to Vire Normandie.

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