Van Avermaet takes 1st mountain stage and yellow jersey

But by now, Van Avermaet’s victory was assured as the peloton’s gap hovered around the 6min mark without showing much desire to chase down the Belgian.

With the win, the BMC rider got the second Tour stage win of his career and, more importantly, took over the yellow jersey for the first time ever.

Defending champion Chris Froome and two-time runner-up Nairo Quintana finished in the main pack, while two-time victor Alberto Contador and 2014 champion Vincenzo Nibali fell out of contention.

Two-time Tour victor Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) felt the effects of heavy crashes earlier in the race, losing another 1:21 to his GC rivals. However it’s worth noting that despite the harder climb today, he conceded just 37 seconds.

Defending champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) and last year’s runner-up Nairo Quintana (Movistar) lie fifth and seventh respectively, 5:17 off the pace. His energy and speed was impressive after such a long break and he clearly had the yellow and the stage win in the bag – he was now fighting to have the biggest lead possible in the GC at the end of the day.

Until past year, Greg Van Avermaet had a reputation for being something of an almost-man; a rider consistently around the mark but who was unable to take the next step up and win the big races.

“I was happy with the stage win past year now a stage win and the yellow jersey is a once in a lifetime for me and I will enjoy it as much as possible tomorrow”. “You can’t write Contador off”.

Van Avermaet leads France’s Julian Alaphilippe (Movistar) by 5:11 in the overall standings, with Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) a further two seconds back.

“For us it was just about staying up front (in the peloton)”, Froome said.

The 216-kilometer (134-mile) fifth stage from Limoges to Le Lioran featured five climbs in a constant up-and-down finish, including the 1,589-meter (5,213-foot) Pas de Peyrol.

De Gendt finished second, 2:35 behind and Rafal Majka of Poland, the 2014 King of the Mountains, crossed third, 5:04 back. The yellow jersey of Peter Sagan was quickly dropped but more surprisingly so were many minor leaders or climbing super domestiques like Rui Costa, Vincenzo Nibali, Wout Poels, Jakob Fuglsgang or Tom Dumoulin.

Contador, who fell twice in each of the opening two stages, is 25th, 6:38 back.

“I didn’t lose the morale, the crowds support me, it’s incredible the support I’m getting”.

“It’s been a good season for me already, I’ve won some nice races”, said Van Avermaet.

The Grand Tour will continue tomorrow with a 190.5km stage six from Arpajon-sur-Cere to Montauban.