Dutch debutant Olav Kooij won the fifth stage of the Tour de France in a chaotic sprint finish after a crash just over five kilometres from the line.

The 24-year-old beat German Max Kanter into second with Belgian Tim Merlier coming home in third as Norway‘s Torstein Traeen kept the race leader’s yellow jersey despite being caught up behind the crash.

“I had to wait until this day to get this first chance to sprint in the Tour and to win it is unbelievable,” said Kooij.

With the sprinters having had to wait until the fifth stage for their first chance at a bunch finish, there was understandably some extra tension in the peloton in the run in.

Several riders went down in the spill with just over 5km to ride, with Dutchman Alex Molenaar seemingly the worst affected.

However, dozens of riders were slowed up by the crash and found themselves desperately trying to chase down a charging peloton.

Sprinters such as Jasper Philipsen lost key lead-out team-mates like Mathieu van der Poel and it led to a disorganised run to the finish line with no teams able to tee up their fast men as they would have wanted to.

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From the disarray, Kooij emerged with an irresistible surge to the line which saw him win with plenty to spare at the end of the 158km stage from Lannezeman to Pau in the southwest.

“It was quite an easy day until the final, so then you know it will be hectic in this first sprint of the Tour,” said Kooij.

“Everyone is still really eager and I just managed to find my way.

“I did it on my own in the end and I found the right wheel and I just wanted to have a chance to sprint today.

“When I saw the line I just went as hard as I could.”

Lone breakaway

Traeen managed to finish in a group 14 seconds behind the winner, alongside reigning champion Tadej Pogacar and other overall contenders such as Jonas Vingegaard, Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel and French teenage sensation Paul Seixas.

The Norwegian still leads the Tour by 28sec from American Sean Quinn, with Czech Mathias Vacek third at 3min 50sec.

It was a fairly typical sprint stage until the finale, with a doomed breakaway easily chased down before the business end of the stage.

Baptiste Veistroffer had said before the stage began that he was determined to get away in a break and sure enough, he was true to his word.

From the chequered flag, he shot off down the road, but perhaps to his surprise, no one else joined him.

It meant that the Frenchman spent 144 kilometres out alone at the front of the race before the sprinters’ teams reeled him in with 14km left to ride.

After that it was over to the sprinters’ teams, but they were unable to control the run-in.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)