While all eyes were on Tadej Pogachar and Jonas Vingegaard on Wednesday's fifth stage in Larence as the Tour de France entered the Pyrenees, another figure stole the limelight on the day.

Jai Hindley, winner of the 2022 Giro d'Italia, took the yellow jersey with a solo stage win from an unexpected breakaway. The Australian now heads into stage 6 and Tourmalet with a 47-second lead over his rivals for the podium. [36 riders, including Hindley, teammate Emmanuel Buchmann, Wout Van Aert, and Giulio Ciccone (all within a minute of the race lead), entered the breakaway 30km into the stage.

Hindley had said that the race would be dry all the way to the Pyrenees in preparation for the second half of the race, but with the UAE Team Emirates more than 4 minutes behind, the Australians had a chance to gain an advantage.

"It wasn't planned, but you have to react to the situation," Bora-Hansgrohe director sportif Enrico Gasparotto said after the stage. 'There was a strong group in front of us. It would also have helped that the UAE and Jumbo played a bit. You have to be in the right place at the right moment to take your chances. That was the case today

"Jai going into the break was certainly unplanned. But maybe he was thinking a little bit about his lucky underwear in the Giro last year."

Gasparotto's fellow DS, Rolf Aldag, admitted that the move was not planned in advance, calling it "more of an accident." According to the German, Hindley gave everything he had to try to win the stage, resulting in the yellow.

A breakaway on the Col de Marie Blanc, 20 km before the finish line, may lead to victory on Thursday's sixth stage, the Col de Tourmalet, but the result means that Beulah Hansgrohe's Tour is already a success, regardless of what happens next.

"He was a podium contender," said Hansgrohe. 'Of course, it was a big investment. He invested everything. He went really, really deep today. But it doesn't matter because he took the yellow jersey and he won the stage."

"The Tour de France is not so bad anymore. He won a stage, he won the yellow jersey, so it won't be a bad Tour from now on."

Hindley is already a Grand Tour winner, having won last year's Giro on the final day in Passo Fedaia in a come-from-behind victory over Richard Carapas.

Nevertheless, the influence of three previous winners, Tadej Pogachar and Jonas Vingegaard, was so great that he was only the second GC contender in this year's Tour.

Hindley, like his coaches, was eager to enjoy his success in Lalungs and focus on the present, rather than thinking about how to defend the jersey and take on the "big two" in the next two weeks.

"Right now I just want to savor the moment and enjoy the stage win and the yellow jersey," Hindley said at the post-race press conference. The team worked really hard to protect me. I really appreciate it.

"I'm here for GC and I still am. That's not going to change. I don't expect too much from myself, but I'm here to be competitive. I've worked hard to be here in the best condition possible and the race is still a long way to go."

"It's a long way from here to Paris. There are a lot of strong riders on GC, not just these two. They are in good shape and I think I am here in not bad shape. I am not here to put socks on centipedes."