Matt White: Simon Yates has shown he’s in Tour de France shape

After the dust settled on a pulsating stage 5 of the Tour de France the complexion of the race was turned on its head with Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) soloing clear to take the stage win and the yellow jersey while Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) established himself as the the strongest climber after dropping principal rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) on the final climb.

Just behind Hindley and the Dane’s performances finished a group of GC contenders who remain in contention for podium places, with Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) crossing the line in Laruns in 13th place, in a group that finished 1:38 behind Hindley. Yates now sits seventh overall, 1:40 down on the Australian but tied on time with Pogačar and with eight riders separated by a minute between third and 10th on GC.

“I’m happy with the form that Simon has shown. Stage 5 was the first real mountain test of the Tour de France and the race really began for a lot of guys. The race Simon has been climbing was a really positive sign and we knew he was in good shape,” Jayco AlUla’s sports director Matt White told GCN.

“He’s on a very similar level to a lot of GC guys. The riders that he finished with today were all very similar and we’re just starting the Tour de France. It’s now about how everyone backs up on stage 6 and as we know the hardest part of the Tour de France is still to come. This was just one little step in terms of how everyone is moving,” he added.Yates looked in formidable form on stage 1, finishing second behind his twin brother Adam and on the higher slopes of stage 5 he remained in contact with a group containing his brother, David Gaudu (Groupama FJD), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers).

The race has only dipped into the Pyrenees and with only one time trial between here and Paris the race is set to come down to how riders manage their form throughout the mountains during the remaining two and a half weeks.

“For GC and Simon it’s about the guys who can manage their fatigue the best. Maybe one time they get in a group with Pogacar and Vingegaard and they’re a passenger to that battle and they end up pulling ahead of the other guys. You’ve got to take every day as it comes because the GC game is about the long game and we’re only just starting the Tour de France,” White said.

The battle for the yellow jersey remains too close to call. Hindley has a 47 lead over Vingegaard but it’s likely that Pogačar will remain a threat unless Jumbo-Visma can completely crack him on stage 6 to the summit finish at Cauterets-Cambasque.

White believes that any of the GC riders inside the top ten could benefit from how Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates match up against each other.

“Among the teams, that was a really good move by Jai,” White said.

“Whether that was planned or not, or if he was going with the flow because it was just such an aggressive start, but we all heard rumblings that UAE wanted to put Jumbo under pressure and that Jumbo wanted to put UAE under pressure. They wanted to test each other, and that meant they could have looked at each other and the break could have gone to the line. I don't think that anyone would have predicted that a Grand Tour winner would have ended up in the break in of the day but that’s what eventuated and in such a big group he’s not going to be doing that much work. That was a bit risky but what we saw today is that Vingegaard is the best climber here.”