The 2025 Tour de France continued Wednesday with stage 5 – a 33-kilometer time trial battle in flat terrain on a route from Caen and back. The stage was expected to become a battle between the time trial specialists in the peloton – including Edoardo Affini, Australian champion Luke Plapp and Norwegian national time trial champion Tobias Foss – who would be aiming for a grand stage victory as general classification favorites such as Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard would also target a stage victory, while trying to gain valuable time on their competitors in the GC.

Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Mathieu van der Poel was leading the general classification of this year’s Tour de France before the stage 5 time trial. Tadej Pogacar was ranked second in the GC in the same time as the leader, while Jonas Vingegaard was third, though eight seconds behind the two first riders.

Yevgeniy Fedorov was the first rider to leave the stage 5 time trial start ramp in Caen. The national time trial champion would definitely do his utmost to perform well in today’s time trial, though he had already been involved in at least three crashes in this year’s Tour de France.

Cees Bol, Silvan Dillier, Will Barta, Ivan Romeo, and Matteo Vercher also started their time trials while Pablo Castrillo set the fastest time at intermediate timing point 1. But most riders in the Tour peloton were yet to leave the start ramp in Caen, so a lot would still happen in the stage.

Luke Plapp (Jayco-Alula) set a new fastest time at Intermediate Timing Point 1 (8.2 km) ahead of Ivan Romeo of team Movistar. 

Additional riders started their time trials. The starters included Michael Storer, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Lenny Martinez, and Tim Merlier.

Luke Plapp was also faster than Ivan Romeo and Pablo Castrillo at Intermediate Timing Point 2 (16.4 km). It was the same at Intermediate Timing Point 3 (24.8 km).

Fedorov had been the first rider to start the time trial and was also the first rider to reach the finish line. He entered the hot seat – but likely just for a short while as faster riders were on the course.

Team Visma-Lease a Bike time trial expert Edoardo Affini left the start ramp and started his time trial at top speed.

Luke Plapp lost valuable time in the finishing kilometers, where a tricky route though corners and narrow streets required pre-race reconnaissance and great bike handling skills. Plapp finished the time trial fifteen seconds slower than Ivan Romeo who was now in the hot seat.

Italian Edoardo Affini set the second-fastest time at Intermediate Timing Point 1 and Magnus Cort clocked the eleventh-fastest time at the finish line – apparently the Dane had not spent all his time making hotel and toilet jokes on his Instagram account and hopefully the rider would soon deliver brilliant race results as he did during his time with Team EF Education-EasyPost.

Time trial expert Matteo Cattaneo of Soudal-QuickStep left the start ramp. The Italian rider would aim for a fast result in today’s stage and his intermediate times would be used as target points for team captain Remco Evenepoel.

French national time trial champion Bruno Armirail of Decathlon-AG2R set a new second-fastest time at Intermediate Timing Point 1 but had dropped to fourth at point 2.

Cattaneo was not in the top ten at the first two intermediate timing points but squeezed himself into ninth at point 3.

EF Education-EasyPost’s Danish time trial expert Kasper Asgreen left the start ramp. Asgreen was known for his amazing flow on the time trial bike and always made it look so easy for spectators at home.

Tobias Foss also started his time trial. The Ineos-Grenadiers rider was likely targeting a top result in the time trial for his Ineos-Grenadiers team that needed success stories in the current racing season.

Asgreen squeezed himself into the top ten at Intermediate Timing Point 2 and would apparently have to aim for successes in breakaway stages instead – as he did in stage 14 of this year’s Giro d’Italia.

Edoardo Affini was the next-best rider at Intermediate Timing Point 2 and set a new fastest time at Intermediate Timing Point 3. The Italian rider continued his impressive performance and blast across the finish line in Caen in a new fastest time. Affini replaced Armirail in the hot seat.

The wind conditions had changed, and the riders were now facing headwinds. 

Geraint Thomas left the start ramp of what would be the penultimate Tour de France time trial of his admirable and inspirational career. Thomas set the 17th-fastest time at Intermediate Timing Point 1.

Wout van Aert also launched his time trial and would be using his power and his Cervelo time trial bike to pave the way for Visma-Lease a Bike team captain Jonas Vingegaard, who would be starting his time trial later.

Germany’s Florian Lipowitz left the start ramp in Caen. The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider was ranked number twenty in the GC was one of the two team captains and would aim for a top result to improve his position in the general classification. The clocked intermediate times of Lipowitz could also be used by Primoz Roglic in his time trial.

Marc Hirschi (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) were some of the next riders to start their time trials. 

Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek set out on his first time trial of this year’s Tour de France. The Danish rider is one of the team’s two captains in the Tour and is known for his good time trial abilities. Placed tenth in the GC, he would be looking to advance in today’s stage.

World time trial champion and Olympic time trial champion Remco Evenepoel was the next rider to leave the start ramp. The Belgian captain from Team Soudal-QuickStep was ninth in the GC before the time trial and raced the time trial on his golden Specialized S-Works time trial bike. 

UAE Team Emirates lieutenant Joao Almeida also started. It would be important for the Portuguese rider to maintain a good position in the GC for strategic reasons, while his times could be used to pace captain Pogacar in his time trial.

Kevin Vauquelin of Team Arkea B & B Hotels was the best placed French rider in the GC of this year’s Tour and was racing on home soil to defend his fifth place.

Evenepoel was second-fastest at Intermediate Timing Point 1, while Mattias Skjelmose was disappointingly nineteenth at the same point.

Matteo Jorgenson left the start ramp as did GC third-placed Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike.

Tadej Pogacar was the penultimate rider to leave the start ramp. The Slovenian would be racing his time trial in the red-dotted jersey and on a completely black Colnago time trial bike – apart from a small green sticker featuring The Incredible Hulk – the Slovenian rider’s mascot.

General classification leader Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck was the last rider to start the time trial. He would be racing in a completely yellow skinsuit.

Lipowitz set the third-best time when he crossed the finish line in Caen. The rider had paced his time trial well. Meanwhile, Evenepoel set a new third-best time at intermediate timing point 2.

Jonas Vingegaard was seventh-best at intermediate timing point 1. The Dane was disappointingly twenty seconds slower than GC competitor Evenepoel at this point. Pogacar then passed intermediate point 1 in 09:44 and was third-fastest. Van der Poel was outside of the top ten.

Primoz Roglic had improved his position during the time trial and crossed the finish line in the seventh-best time. But other GC favorites were yet to finish their time trials.

Vingegaard was 12th at Intermediate Timing Point 2 and was still losing time. Evenepoel had been third-fastest when he reached the same timing point. Pogacar reached the same timing point shortly later and was sixth best. Pogacar was twelve seconds slower than Evenepoel, while Vingegaard was 42 seconds behind Evenepoel. The Dane was even slower than Roglic and Vauquelin at this timing point. 

Remco Evenepoel crossed the finish line in a new best time and would enter the hot seat. 00:36:42 would possibly secure the Belgian rider a joyful stage victory.

Joao Almeida crossed the finish line in a new sixth-best time. Meanwhile, Vingegaard was thirteenth-best at Intermediate Timing Point 3. A very disappointing performance from the Dane whose team had invested everything in him to deliver a top performance in this year’ Tour de France. Pogacar, meanwhile, was third best at the same timing point, while Evenepoel had the best time. Vingegaard was more than a minute behind Evenepoel, while Pogacar was seventeen seconds slower than the Belgian world time trial champion.

Jonas Vingegaard crossed the finish line in Caen in the 12th-best time and was more than a minute slower than stage leader Remco Evenepoel, who was in the hot seat.

Pogacar finished the stage in the second-fastest time, almost seventeen seconds slower than Evenepoel. Vingegaard lost more than a minute to Pogacar in today’s stage. Defending GC leader Mathieu van der Poel finished eighteenth in the stage and proved unable to defend the yellow jersey.

Remco Evenepoel is the winner of the stage 5 individual time trial of this year’s Tour de France. Tadej Pogacar finished second, seventeen seconds behind the winner, while Edoardo Affini completed the stage podium, 33 seconds after the winner.

Tadej Pogacar has taken control of this year’s Tour de France and now leads the general classification in 17:22:58. Remco Evenepoel advanced to second place, 42 seconds behind the leader. Kevin Vauquelin climbed to third, while Jonas Vingegaard dropped to fourth, 01:13 minutes behind Pogacar. Matteo Jorgenson is fifth, Van der Poel sixth, Joao Almeida seventh, and Primoz Roglic eighth. Florian Lipowitz is ninth, while Mattias Skjelmose completes the new GC top ten.

“I think it was pretty good, and I didn’t feel like I could go any faster. The second stage win for our team is super nice. I believe I kind of pushed pretty steady and my strongest point was I maintained the same pace in the last ten kilometers as in the first ten,” stage winner Evenepoel explained to Roadcycling.com shortly after the finish.

“I paced it perfectly and I am super happy. Tadej Pogacar did a very strong time trial as well and seventeen seconds is pretty close. He made a step forward compared to his Dauphine time trial. I did what I had to do to try to take as much time as possible and to step up in the GC. Today was a good first step for me,” Evenepoel continued.

Thursday’s stage 6 of Tour de France 2025 will invite the riders in the Tour peloton to a 201.5-kilometer ride in hilly and alternating terrain on a route from Bayeux, near the coast, to Vire Normandie. The stage will feature six category 3 and 4 climbs.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 Tour de France.