American Marconi Wireless News - Kooij wins Tour de France 5th stage in chaotic sprint finish

The 24-year-old beat German Max Kanter into second with Belgian Tim Merlier coming home in third as Norway's Torstein Traeen kept the race leader's yellow jersey despite being caught up behind the crash.

Several riders went down in the spill with just over 5km to ride, with Dutchman Alex Molenaar seemingly the worst affected.

However, dozens of riders were slowed up by the crash and found themselves desperately trying to chase down a charging peloton.

Sprinters such as Jasper Philipsen lost key lead-out team-mates like Mathieu van der Poel and it led to a disorganised run to the finish line with no teams able to tee up their fast men as they would have wanted to.

From the disarray, Kooij emerged with an irresistible surge to the line which saw him win with plenty to spare at the end of the 158km stage from Lannezeman to Pau in the southwest.

Traeen managed to finish in a group 14 seconds behind the winner, alongside reigning champion Tadej Pogacar and other overall contenders such as Jonas Vingegaard, Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel and French teenage sensation Paul Seixas.

The Norwegian still leads the Tour by 28sec from American Sean Quinn, with Czech Mathias Vacek third at 3min 50sec.

Ch.Havering--AMWN