Minutes after Dylan Groenewegen's sprint victory in Thursday's Tour de France, Jayco Eyewear management was already joking about his wacky aero "beak": "Batman won today." [It's his first Grand Tour victory since Filippo Zana's solo run in the mountains of last year's Giro d'Italia, and his first Tour victory since Michael Matthews' win at Mende Airfield in 2022.

Their victories also helped GC contender Simon Yates recover from a relatively tough start to the Tour, in which he lost more than four minutes when he crashed on stage 4 at the Col du Galibier.

Groenewegen had five stage wins in the Tour prior to this year's competition, but missed the top five last year. This season he changed his training, missing the Criterium du Dauphiné and coming into the Tour with a slightly reduced schedule.

It seems to have already served him well, along with his now famous Cyclone Aeroscope sunglasses.

"Anything on the market is allowed," Groenewegen said of the sunglasses he was forced to remove on stage 3. 'Saicon has it on the market now. I don't know how many watts it is, but if I can go a little faster, I'll use it. Today it was enough (to win).

"I can't say I'm better this year, but I felt faster in the spring. In a lot of cases the sprints are better than before, I won a stage in 2022, but last year we had almost the same schedule and we didn't win a stage.

"We were always there in the sprints, but never won. This year we made a few changes after the Classics and balanced it out to make the sprints harder."

Bringing Jayco Alura his first Tour stage win since 2023 would "take some of the pressure off" for the next two weeks, Groenewegen said, while his directeur sportif, Matt White, said that for a big win in the Tour, the team s other 18 victories this season for a big win in the Tour.

"Every team needs [a Tour stage win]. I would trade all the other 18 wins for this one win."

"[2023] was a great Tour, but it's measured by wins, and much of the year is measured in these three weeks. So to get one win so quickly is great.

Commenting on the Jayco Aiuia team's relatively late finish in the third group sprint in four days, White said, "The riders were patient and went back and forth.

Groenewegen explained that his teammates did their job on stage 5 in Saint-Vulva, but after the early mountain stages of the Tour to Valloire, the team said he did not have a good feeling, perhaps because he had spent the previous night at altitude, and did not have the confidence to fight for victory

"I was a little bit nervous," he said.

"I was surrounded a bit, but that's also a sprint," he said of stage 5. But it's a sprint. That's part of the sprint, but I was really disappointed because I was not in good shape yesterday, probably because I slept at altitude. In the final I lost confidence and made the wrong choices.

"The team did really well yesterday. After the finish I told them that the speed was still there.

"We did a really good job as a team today. Everyone pushed hard and we ultimately came away with the win."

Groenewegen and the riders he leads could again take on a sprint stage on Saturday.

Groenewegen may win this stage for the second time, but with three sprint stage winners so far in this Tour, another rider could be happy at the finish. The level of sprinters and lead-out trains has never been higher in this competition.

"I think the level of sprinters is really high.

"Every sprinter has a really strong sprint train, so it's not just the 2-3 teams that have really strong sprinters or strong sprint teams, it's the teams that have really strong sprinters and strong sprint teams.

"You just have to do the right things to win a stage and you need confidence to win. We won today, Mark Cavendish won yesterday, and Biniam Girmay won the other day.

Groenewegen's margin of victory (about the width of a wheel in the middle section) may have been helped by his funky new sunglasses.

But now he and his team can celebrate his first Tour victory. White joked, "Batman won today."

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