Tour de France: Lack of breakaway angers Offredo and baffles Van Aert

TOPSHOT The pack rides during the 5th stage of the 107th edition of the Tour de France cycling race 185 km between Gap and Privas on September 2 2020 Photo by Marco BERTORELLO AFP Photo by MARCO BERTORELLOAFP via Getty Images
(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

The 2020 Tour de France was already like no other, but it became even more exceptional on Wednesday, as a road stage went by without a single breakaway, an event that has been greeted with bafflement and despair in some corners.

Across the 183 kilometres from Gap to Privas on stage 5, not a single rider spent any longer than a kilometre off the front of the peloton. Barring the briefest of acceleration from Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), himself riding for race leader Julian Alaphilippe, no one showed the slightest interest in heading up the road on a snoozy day that was sandwiched in between two mountain stages.

Patrick Fletcher

Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.