By Vincent Daheron
PAU, France, July 8 (Reuters) - Dutch rider Olav Kooij claimed his first Tour de France stage victory on his race debut on Wednesday, sprinting to victory on stage five after a late crash fractured the peloton in the closing kilometres.
The Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider powered to victory at the end of the 158.3-km route from Lannemezan to Pau, finishing ahead of Germany's Max Kanter of XDS Astana, with Belgium's Tim Merlier of Soudal-Quick Step taking third place.
"After a couple
of hard days here already I had to wait to get this first chance and to immediately win is unbelievable. It means quite a lot," Kooij was quoted as saying by TNT Sports.
"It was quite an easy day until the final, so you know it will be hectic and the first sprint in the Tour everyone is still really eager. I just managed to find my way, a bit on my own in the end that I managed to find the right wheel. I just wanted to sprint today and when I saw the line I went as hard as I could."
Norway's Torstein Traeen of Uno-X Mobility retained the yellow jersey despite being caught behind the late incident, while Dane Mads Pedersen, who began the day in the green jersey after winning stage four, finished seventh.
Traeen crossed the line in a group 14 seconds behind Kooij alongside defending champion Tadej Pogacar and other leading general classification contenders, including Jonas Vingegaard, Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel and French teenager Paul Seixas.
The Norwegian continues to lead the overall standings by 28 seconds over American Sean Quinn, with Czech rider Mathias Vacek third, three minutes 50 seconds off the pace.
LATE DRAMA
A largely uneventful stage appeared destined for a routine bunch sprint, with Frenchman Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto Intermarche the only rider to spend significant time off the front after launching a solo breakaway.
But the complexion of the race changed dramatically with 5.3 km remaining when a crash split the peloton and disrupted several teams' lead-out trains ahead of the finish.
Kooij capitalised on the chaos, emerging from the reduced lead group to secure the biggest victory of his career, while many of the race's overall favourites were left in pursuit.
The split ultimately created a 14-second gap between the front group and the chasing pack but had little impact on the battle for the yellow jersey, as the main general classification contenders all finished together.
(Reporting by Vincent Daheron; Writing by Karan Prashant Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Chopra and Clare Fallon)
