A fantastic day for Team Alpecin-Deceuninck. Shortly after the Victory for Mathieu van der Poel at the E3 Saxo Classic Axel Laurance struck at the Tour of Catalonia. The 22-year-old Frenchman won the bunch sprint after 167.3 kilometres between Altafulla and Viladecans with a tiger's leap ahead of Marijn van den Berg (EF Education EasyPost), who had won stage 4 the day before. Third place went to Bryan Coquard (Cofidis).
It's amazing, my first year on the World Tour and then to win straight away, that's really nice - Axel Laurance in the winner's interview
Tour of Catalonia 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 5
- Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 3:36:05
- Marijn van den Berg (EF Education EasyPost) +0:00
- Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) +0:00
- Orluis Aular (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) +0:00
- Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:00
- Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek) +0:00
- Dorian Godon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:00
- Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma) +0:00
- Fernando Barcelo (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) +0:00
- Frank van den Broek (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL)
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) continues to lead the overall standings with a large lead over Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step). Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike) reclaimed seventh place from Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) with a time bonus.
The current standings in the overall standings
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 20:54:36
- Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) +2:27
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +2:55
- Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) +3:21
- Chris Harper (Team Jayco-AlUla) +3:22
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +3:24
- Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike) +3:31
- Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) +3:31
- Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) +3:50
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +3:52
This is how the 5th stage of the Tour of Catalonia 2024 went
There were numerous breakaway attempts in the early stages. Among others, a group led by Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) broke away in the meantime, but could not get away. Georg Steinhauser (EF Education EasyPost) also tried his luck - also without success.
Only around 85 kilometres before the finish did a strong group form, which pulled out a substantial lead - Steinhauser was there again. He was joined by Oscar Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Jacopo Mosca (Lidl-Trek), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ) and Christopher Juul-Jensen (Team Jayco-AlUla).
Georg Steinhauser with a strong performance
Their maximum lead was around two minutes. In the peloton, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Cofidis were mainly responsible for the chase. The breakaway's lead quickly melted away, Rodriguez and Steinhauser stayed in front the longest, but they couldn't do anything against the chasing peloton and were caught shortly after the last mountain classification of the day.
The Israel-Premier Tech team caused difficulties for some sprinters there with a high pace. Further attacks on the final flat section were also unsuccessful and some sprinters, such as Marijn van den Berg, caught up with the leaders again.
Axel Laurance sprints to victory from behind Patrick Konrad's wheel
The final sprint was disorganised. The eventual winner Axe Laurance orientated himself on the rear wheel of Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek), who finished sixth, left the slipstream of the Austrian around 100 metres before the finish and secured victory with a tiger's leap just ahead of van den Berg.
The Tour of Catalonia continues on Saturday with the 6th stage: over 154.7 kilometres between Berga and Queralt, more than 4000 metres in altitude await - a day for the climbers.
