"I have no explanation," Visma DS, Grischa Niermann, said at the finish. "Before the time trial everything was good, there were no problems, but in the time trial he’s not able to talk to me, and I'm only able to talk to him.

The defending Tour champion sped back into the yellow jersey in the stage 5 time trial, the 91st of his career, limiting his losses to stage winner, world and Olympic time trial champion Remco Evenepoel. Unexpectedly, he made huge gains on his great rival, Jonas Vingegaard, gaining 65 seconds.

Evenepoel, the reigning time trial Olympic and world champion, was expected to win the stage in the absence of time trial specialists — Filippo Ganna and Stefan Bissegger, who both crashed and exited the race on the first day of the Tour last week.