Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) crashed inside the final kilometer but was able to climb back on the bike. The belgian leader of the race was within the “safe zone” when he fell and and so didn’t lose any time ahead of a gruelling mountainous final to the week.
Stage 5 was otherwise all about the sprinters, who used all their experience to catch the day's breakaway, made up of Benjamin Thomas, Jordan Labrosse, Thibault Guernalec and Enzo Leijnse.
The Dutchman stalled with 10km to go, but the three Frenchmen gave it their all and were caught just after the 2 kilometre mark.
While Lidl-Trek was battling at the front for Jonathan Milan, Evenepoel was caught in a crash. While this was of no consequence from a timing point of view, the question was whether he and Enric Mas were physically affected.
While Pascal Ackerman crashed and had to retire, Israel-Premier Tech still triumphed with its other trump card as, Jake Stewart launched from afar and won the race by more than a bicycle's lenght.
Evenepoel’s GC rivals Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) rolled in with the bunch.