Van Aert finished off a frantic final few kilometres of racing with a superb surge over the top of Julian Alaphillippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and held off Sam Bennett (BORA-hansgrohe) to take the win.
“This is unbelievable. I never expected to beat Sam Bennett here”, van Aert said. “We knew that it was going to be very sinuous and technical with all those roundabouts in the last two kilometres.
"It was necessary to be in position fairly early. My teammates brought me well and I positioned myself behind the leadout of Bennett in the slipstream of Alaphilippe.
"I launched my sprint in the last corner. When I passed Julian, I knew I had it: my second win in a row. What a great week."
Van Aert's second stage win in a row comes after his upstaging of the time-trial favourites to win the 26.1 kilometre test against the clock. He also sits in the lead of the sprint and young rider's classifcations, moving to fifth on the general classification with the stage win.
"I did not expect to be able to win here," said van Aert, "but I did want to try and sprint for my green jersey. From tomorrow on I will be riding in support of our leader Steven Kruijswijk and try to take the green jersey back to Belgium.”
The race continues with Stage 6, a hilly stage that ends with a descent from the Category 2 climb, the Col de Beaune. Coverage begins on SBS VICELAND and streaming on the Cycling Central website from 11.05 pm AEST.
