Tour de France leader Wout van Aert ready for ‘really demanding’ stages

The cobbles of stage five loom large on the agenda after the Tour de France returned home from a spectacular Grand Depart in Denmark.

Riders enjoyed an unusually early rest day on Monday – included to allow for the transfer back to northern France – with riders flying into Lille following Sunday’s stage to Sonderborg.

Though a hilly race between Dunkerque and Calais is next up on Tuesday, it is Wednesday’s stage between Lille and Arenberg which is already on the minds of several riders.

“Wednesday will be a big day on the cobbles,” said the Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas. “We’ve got to rest up, enjoy the rest day and then get back into it.

“You kind of get into the rhythm of (the race), you want to keep going so you don’t want to have to travel and have this rest day.”

Wednesday’s stage will take riders into territory more usually associated with Paris-Roubaix and the brutal cobbles which make the ‘Hell of the North’ one of the most feared races on the calendar.

The Tour will steer clear of the most famous sectors from that race and seek out new territory, finishing in Arenberg but bypassing its eponymous trench, but that only adds an element of the unknown.

For the likes of Thomas, Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic – those with ambitions of wearing yellow in Paris in three weeks’ time – it is a day to endure and survive, where no winning moves can be made but the Tour could certainly be lost to injury or incident.

But for the man currently in yellow, Wout van Aert, it is a day when he could well take stage honours, considered one of the main favourites for the day along with Mathieu Van der Poel.

“I think what’s coming will be really demanding after the rest day,” the Belgian said. “Every stage has tricky parts,