Evenepoel wins in Tour de France time trial as UAE Team Emirates Pogacar leads

Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel won the fifth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday, a 33km time trial around Caen that saw Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar take the yellow jersey from Mathieu van der Poel.

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World and Olympic champion Evenepoel completed the course in 36min 42sec at a blistering average speed of 54 km/h.

He finished 16 seconds quicker than Pogacar with the Italian Edoardo Affini 33sec off the stage lead in third.

Pogacar now leads the general classification with a 42sec advantage over Evenepoel who collected his second stage win on the Tour de France, having triumphed in the time trial in Gevrey-Chambertin last year on his debut in the Grande Boucle.

"I knew I had a good chance but, of course, the legs still have to be there and everything has to go to plan," said Evenepoel whose Soudal Quick-Step teammate Tim Merlier won stage 3 two days ago.

"In the end I think it was pretty good. I didn't really feel like I could go any faster, so I think in general I'm happy with the result.

"It’s a second stage win for our team, it’s super nice."