Tadej Pogacar denied Stefan Kung a maiden Tour de France stage win with a barnstorming victory in the Stage 5 time trial as Mathieu van der Poel dug deep to hold onto the yellow jersey in Laval. Dutchman Van der Poel now leads the Slovenian defending champion by eight seconds after posting the fifth-best time in the 27.2km race against the clock.
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Emotions ran high on the Tour de France as Mark Cavendish rolled back the years by sprinting to Stage 4 glory at Fougeres to take over the green jersey from teammate Julian Alaphilippe. It was the Manxman’s first win on the Tour for five years and saw him take his tally to 31 – just three shy of Eddy Merckx’s all-time record.
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Tim Merlier won a dramatic stage three of the Tour de France as a string of crashes caused chaos in the final 10 kilometres. Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic both suffered painful tumbles and lost time, defending champion Tadej Pogacar was held up by an incident inside the last four kilometres, while both Mark Cavendish and Caleb Ewan were denied the opportunity to contest the stage.
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Mathieu van der Poel won Stage 2 with a blistering ride over the double-ascent at Mur-de-Bretagne to take the yellow jersey in mesmerising style. Slovenians Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic led the chase six seconds down but Julian Alaphilippe could only manage fifth place and conceded the race lead to the Dutch debutant after another dramatic day on the Tour de France.
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Mathieu van der Poel produced a spectacular victory to clinch the 2021 Strade Bianche title in style. The 26-year-old came up with a number of magical bursts just when he needed to and had too much for his rivals to seal a memorable win. Julian Alaphilippe came in second place with Egan Bernal in third.
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