Pogacar in control after Clarke takes stage five of the Tour

SIMON Clarke won stage five of the Tour de France in a photo finish in Arenberg as defending champion Tadej Pogacar took a big step towards a third straight title on a bad day for the JumboVisma team of race leader Wout van Aert and Primoz Roglic.

The cobbled stage of northern France had a huge say in the general classification battle as Roglic crashed on a roundabout, his team-mate Jonas Vingegaard suffered a costly puncture, and the likes of Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates were caught up in the chaos to lose time.

Clarke (pictured) edged out Taco van der Hoorn to claim Israel-PremierTech’s first Tour stage victory, but the biggest winner was Pogacar who used a late attack to pick up considerable time on his rivals.

Van Aert showed he was willing to relinquish yellow as he spent the final 30km working to salvage the day for his teammate Vingegaard, closing a gap to Pogacar that had been nearly a minute to only surrender 13 seconds by the end.

That means he now leads by 13 seconds from Neilson Powless and 14 from Edvald Boasson Hagen - two riders who had been in the breakaway with Pogacar sitting fourth 19 seconds down.

But the Slovenian picked up 13 seconds on Vingegaard, Thomas, Yates and others, while Roglic surrendered more than two minutes, while another general classification hopeful Jack Haig crashed out entirely.

For Clarke, 35, his first individual Tour stage victory comes after a winter in which he thought his career might be over after the break up of the Qhubeka-Assos team.

“After the winter I had, I had no team, having Israel ring me up and give me that chance, it just gives you such a reality check,” he said.

“As you’ve seen this season I’ve come out in every race swinging, trying to make the most of every opportunity...

“I moved to Europe when I was 16 and I’m 36 on the second rest day (of the Tour).

“It’s been 20 years now and today that dream really comes true.”