Reigning Olympic time trial champion Remco Evenepoel should be a major factor in Caen as Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel battle for overall lead.

Like on stage four, there are any number of riders who could find some joy in Vire Normandie today. Tadej Pogacar loves a climb and a stage win, particularly in yellow, and the 10% gradient on the final climb will appeal to him - if the GC teams control the stage, which UAE certainly tend to do whenever the big man has a victory in his sights.

Remco Evenepoel is clearly the man to beat in stage five. The Olympic and world time trial champion was superb at the Dauphine where he took 20 seconds out of Jonas Vingegaard and was 48 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar. And with no Filippo Ganna or Stefan Bissegger after their stage one crashes it is hard to look beyond the big three.

America's three-time Tour de France winner has received the Congressional Gold Medal, an honor on par with the Presidential Medal Freedom.

Analysis of the fifth stage of the 2025 Tour de France, a 33km time trial starting and finishing in the city of Caen

Evenepoel, the reigning time trial Olympic and world champion, was expected to win the stage in the absence of time trial specialists — Filippo Ganna and Stefan Bissegger, who both crashed and exited the race on the first day of the Tour last week.

Tim Merlier speaking after winning stage three: "It was difficult to be in position in the battle before the last corner and I must say, my team did an incredible job to the last 5km and then the real battle started," said Merlier.

A three-week Grand Tour will always contain natural ebbs and flows, and, for much of Monday’s stage between Valenciennes and Dunkirk, it looked as if the peloton had declared an unofficial rest day, with the riders happy to cruise back towards the coast after a weekend of wind, rain and intensity.

Tadej Pogačar showed his sprinting skills by beating Mathieu Van der Poel in a dash to the line to win the hilly fourth stage of the Tour de France.

Thomas Gachignard (Total Energies), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) zipped off the front early in the stage and have been joined by Danish powerhouse Kasper Asgreen. It's a handy quartet but the gap is being held at two minutes and well that's nothing at all given how few they are.