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Clarke takes Tour de France’s stage 5, Van Aert clings to lead

ARENBERG PORTE DU HAINAUT, FRANCE Australian rider Simon Clarke won a crash-marred fifth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday while Wout van Aert clung onto the leader’s yellow jersey despite coming off his bike.

The big winner though was Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar, who kick-started his bid to win a third straight Tour with a sensational ride over the cobbles to slash the gap to Van Aert to 19 seconds on a day where several of his rivals lost time. Pogacar had a broad smile as he crossed the line.

“That was a really hard day. Quite stressful in the first part, and the second part was really tough. It was a lot of power on the pedals through the day, the cobbles were dusty and dangerous,” Pogacar said.

It was a first individual win on the Tour for Clarke, who was in tears after crossing the line. Clarke had won a team time trial in the race in 2013 and also two individual stages in the Spanish Vuelta.

The 35-year-old Clarke, who rides for Israel-Premier Tech, sprinted to victory from the remnants of an early breakaway, edging out Taco van der Hoorn.

Edvald Boasson Hagen finished two seconds behind, at the end of the 157-kilometer leg from Lille Metropole to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut that went over some of the feared cobblestones that feature on the Paris-Roubaix one-day classic.

Hugo Houle of Sainte-Perpetue, Que., was the top Canadian in the stage.

The Israel-Premier Tech rider finished 25th on Wednesday and moved to 34th overall, 1:51 behind van Aert.

SPORTS

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2022-07-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-07-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

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