Hindley wins stage, takes Tour de France lead

LARUNS, France — Former Giro d’Italia champion Jai Hindley seized the Tour de France’s yellow jersey Wednesday after claiming the first mountain stage of this year’s race during an eventful ride in the Pyrenees.

Hindley was part of an early breakaway and became the first Australian leader of the race since Rohan Dennis back in 2015.

Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard showed his great form in the last climb of the day when he dropped two-time winner Tadej Pogacar with a sharp attack.

Vingegaard moved into second place, 47 seconds behind Hindley, according to provisional results.

Denmark’s Vingegaard accelerated some two kilometers from the top of the last climb, the lung-busting ascent to the Col de Marie Blanque (7.7 km at 8.6%), to take 1 minute, 4 seconds off the two-time Tour winner.

Thursday’s sixth stage is an another mountain ride over 144.9 km between Tarbes and Cauterets featuring punishing climbs up the Col d’Aspin and Col du Tourmalet.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.