Visma's Wout Van Aert won a fiercely contested bunch sprint on stage five of the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes on Thursday ahead of an inconsolable Hugo Hofstetter, with Bahrain's Phil Bauhaus in third.
There was still no change atop the leaderboard with stage 1 winner Alex Baudin of EF in the yellow jersey, 12sec ahead of Netcompany-Ineos pair Kevin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley.
Onley will likely battle with 10th-placed French youngster Paul Seixas over the final three days with Isaac del Toro, Matteo Jorgenson and Juan Ayuso also expected to enter the battle over the big mountain stages to come.
Stage five was the flattest day with a mere 2 500m vertical gain, and also the longest stage of the Tour at 195.8km.
It was cast as a likely bunch sprint and with little wind on the open flat plains, it proved to be so.
C’était la journée des sprinteurs ! 🚴♂️💨
— Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (@tourauverhalpes) June 11, 2026
⏪ Revivez le dernier kilomètre de l’étape 5
It was a sprinters’ day! 🔥
⏪ Relive the last kilometre of Stage 5!#TourAuvergneRhoneAlpes pic.twitter.com/B5lNFgOpZ8
Having suffered a pre-race crash Van Aert came close to a win on Wednesday, and here he powered a bike-length clear of a frustrated Hofstetter, who was left in tears.
"With the team I had around me, chasing the break all day, I just had to try," said Van Aert after taking his first win since Paris-Roubaix in April.
Friday's stage culminates with two tough climbs, while the two mountain stages on the weekend will provide Onley, Seixas and any other pretender to the title the platform to prove themselves.