Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) was the only sprinter in the lead in the last 500m of stage 5 of the Tour de France, but her last teammate, Elisa Longo Borghini, made a wrong turn while leading the peloton and was forced to finish in second place.

GC Hope's Longo Borghini was initially recorded as finishing 9 seconds behind the winner of this stage, Lorena Wiebes of Team DSM, losing time to her rivals in the overall competition. However, this was later rescinded and Longo Borghini was awarded the same time as the winner.

"It is clear what happened, it was my fault," the Trek-Segafredo rider said after the stage. "I knew the road and I knew I had to go straight. I knew the road and I knew I had to go straight, but all of a sudden I felt I had to go left. I didn't know there was a corner, so I was scared.

Just before the finishing straight, the road split in two, and Longo Borghini slowed and turned left onto the road taken by the Tour de France femme race cars instead of the right route.

"It was no one's fault. I am happy that no one was hurt, that everything went smoothly and that the peloton is safe."

The team and Longo Borghini initially refused to speak to the media at the finish as they waited for news on whether the time gap would hold, but once the GC status was confirmed, the 30-year-old looked happy.

"We're laughing about it now," he said. But the most important thing is that I didn't cause the crash or harm anyone else. I'm sorry for the peloton. I just don't know what happened.

Longo Borghini's mistake may have contributed to Balsamo's loss of the championship. The world champion Balsamo had to close the gap on Marianne Vos (Jumbo Visma), Rachele Barbieri (Liv Racing Exstra), and stage winner Wiebes in the last few hundred meters.

Despite his mistake in the finale, Balsamo praised his team's effort on the race's longest stage.

"Yes, they did their best. They did a very good leadout."

"It was a very long stage. It was very long because the gas pedal was not at full throttle. My teammates did a great job.