Tour de France Stage 5 Predictions: Yellow jersey up for grabs in Caen

It's taken four stages but Tadej Pogacar is a Tour de France stage winner again after he claimed victory in an absorbing finish in Rouen on Tuesday.

Pogacar led home a superstar first three including Mathieu van der Poel and his big yellow jersey rival Jonas Vingegaard in the Normandy town and is now level on time as Van der Poel, who clung on to the leader's jersey on countback.

Wednesday could be the day that the Dutchman relinquishes yellow, though, with a 33-kilometre time-trial around Caen sure to bring the specialists against the clock and general classification contenders to the fore.

Read on for my Tour de France Stage 5 predictions.

The route

The first of two time-trials on this year's race will be a test of raw power with the peloton set to take on a fast and flat 33km route around the northern city of Caen.

Tour de France Stage 5 Odds 

There are three time checks along the way and it is anticipated that the stage will take the best riders close to 37 minutes.

Jonas Vingegaard @ 6/1

World and Olympic time-trial champion Remco Evenepoel has few equals when it comes to time-trialling and the Belgian is undoubtedly a deserved favourite to win stage five.

Evenepoel is unbeaten against the clock since the final stage of last year's Tour in Nice, when he had already undertaken three weeks of punishing racing, and he will not have to worry about Filippo Ganna on Wednesday after the Italian was forced to abandon on stage one.

Ganna has got the closest to beating Evenepoel against the clock since his last TT defeat, but if the Belgian is to lose his winning streak then it could be on Wednesday.

The power course will suit him but Evenepoel has not looked at his tip-top best over the first four stages and he certainly seemed to be at least one level below Pogacar and Vingegaard on Tuesday.

The big two trailed in Evenepoel's wake in the TT at last month's Criterium du Dauphine but it may be worth taking a chance on the pair getting much closer, and even potentially turning the tables on the world champion.

Vingegaard has done a lot of work to increase his power for the first week of the Tour and that has been evident in time trials this year.

He has previously excelled on Tour TTs and was 28 seconds ahead of Pogacar at the Dauphine.

At the prices, the Dane may be the man to take Evenepoel on with.

Edoardo Affini each-way @ 28/1

Vingegaard is not the only Visma-Lease a Bike rider in with a chance of a strong showing, though.

Power courses are the preserve of European champion Edoardo Affini, who will no doubt be looking at Wednesday's stage as probably his last of this year's race to fully commit to himself.

Affini will be pressed into helping Vingegaard wrestle back the yellow jersey from Pogacar in the later stages and the powerful Italian won't be better suited to many Grand Tour stages such as the one he will encounter in Caen.

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