Stage 5

The road

At the start

Brittany's hills, and a drag to Quimper

Greg Van Avermaet keeps yellow, level on time with Tejay van Garderen, and Quick-Step still have three men inside seven seconds. Today is the hardest day of the week so far: 204 kilometres across Brittany with five short, sharp climbs in the last hundred and an uphill drag to the line in Quimper. Van Avermaet put a star beside this stage the day the route was announced.

How it was won

1. 164 km to go

   The break thins on the Roche du Feu

   Over the Côte de la Roche du Feu the escape is down to four with two minutes in hand, but behind, Bora-Hansgrohe are already ratcheting up the pace on the rugged Breton roads.

2. 223 km to go

   Sprinters shelled before Quimper

   Through the evocative village of Locronan, 25km out, the intensity burns off the pure sprinters — Cavendish and Kittel long gone — leaving a select group for the uphill drag.

3. 3At the line

   Sagan times the Quimper drag

   On the uphill finale Sagan judges his effort perfectly to beat Colbrelli and Gilbert, tightening his grip on the green jersey.

The result