The Tour Says No U-Turns
A sprint stage is supposed to be predictable until it isn’t. Stage 5 of the Tour de France brings blazing heat, constant fight for position, and a gutsy solo breakaway that forces the peloton to make hard choices long before the finish. We break down the Len Lamazan to Po run with the numbers that matter, what 88-degree temperatures do to hydration and decision-making, and why “staying out of trouble” becomes the real goal for the yellow jersey contenders before the mountains arrive.
The day’s story starts with a rider going alone and daring the race to respond. We talk through what it means when a breakaway forms with nobody else willing to commit, how teams manage the gap, and why that kind of effort can define a stage even if it gets caught. Then everything changes with a crash inside the final six kilometers, fracturing the peloton and wrecking sprint trains right when lead-outs are trying to click into place. From that chaos, Olav Kuvy keeps his head and wins the sprint ahead of Max Cantor and Tim Milar.
We also dig into listener questions that uncover the Tour’s hidden rulebook: why riding backward on course is forbidden for riders and even mechanics, what’s actually allowed when you need help, and how penalties work. Finally, we simplify the scoring behind the green jersey points classification, King of the Mountain points for the polka dot jersey, and why yellow and white are about cumulative time, not “points.” If you like Tour de France strategy, sprint drama, and the small rules that decide big moments, you’ll feel right at home. Subscribe, share this with a cycling fan, and leave a review with your take: which jersey is the hardest to earn?
Adam and Michael’s friendship has grown through years of shared miles, challenges, and laughter on the bike. Their passion for cycling has carried them through life’s twists and turns, creating a bond full of stories, jokes, and unforgettable rides. In their podcast, they bring that same spirit to the mic—sharing adventures, trading banter, and welcoming listeners into their cycling community. Whether tackling steep climbs or cruising open roads, their conversations capture the fun, friendship, and freedom that cycling brings. Tune in for stories that celebrate the ride and the camaraderie that makes it unforgettable.
and Remember,
It's a Great Day for a Bike Ride!
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1 SPEAKER_01: Leisure breakaway.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back to Cycling
Men of Leisure's Leisure Breakaway.
We're bringing it to you every day to review what happened at
the Tour de France.
And stage five, let me tell you, uh, it brought the speed, it
brought the heat, uh, and the thrilling sprint into Poe.
Um, while the sprinters battled for the the stage wins, uh the
tour's favorites fought to stay out of trouble uh before the
mountain mountains take center stage tomorrow.
Um I am Michael, and with me once again is my good friend
Adam.
SPEAKER_00: Well, good evening, stage five.
That's right.
How are you doing?
Good, good, good.
I uh I have been fielding uh community members lots of
questions, and so I didn't I didn't get a chance to look up
your nationality thing, but don't worry.
Don't worry, that'll be tomorrow.
I've got a lot of good stuff, so okay.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's not a hurry.
It was just a I was interested though.
So uh today's stage it was a good one.
Started in uh Len Lamazan, it finished in Po.
158.3 kilometers, which for us Americans is 98.4 miles.
They uh gained approximately 1,750 meters of elevation.
That is 507 uh 5,740 feet of climb.
Uh the weather again is the big topic at the tour.
It is hot, hot and dry.
Average temperature today uh was around 88 degrees Fahrenheit, 31
degrees Celsius.
Um, they were really challenged today with staying hydrated.
I mean, it was it was starting to show uh big time.
So um so far we've only lost uh three riders, so that's that's
pretty good.
Um it's actually better than where they normally are at at
stage five.
Um but the highlights for today is um we really saw our first
true brat batch of sprints.
Uh we haven't really had any sprinting uh in the first four
days up till now.
Uh today, let me tell you, as far as the the winner in my
books, uh Batiste Vestofer.
Um man, French writer, he spent most of the day in the
breakaway, but when he took off right from the get-go, nobody
went with him.
So that guy stayed out for the most of the day, two to three
minutes ahead of the Peloton uh by himself.
So I mean, fantastic job to him.
Uh typically, when you go, somebody else or two other
people or three other people go with you.
Nope.
It's like he took off and uh you know, turned around, and there's
like nobody with him.
So they were just like keep going, it's your race, ride like
you want to.
And that's what he did.
So uh great effort by him.
Now, in the final six kilometers, there was a crash,
uh, which just totally fractured up the the Peloton and uh
disrupted several of the sprinting uh trains.
I mean, at that point the sprinting trains were getting
lined up, ready to go, and then they had this this crash, and so
that messed uh a lot of stuff up.
But Olav Kuvy, uh, he was able to keep his composure through
all that chaos uh to outsprint Max Cantor and uh Tim Milar.
And uh was pretty pretty intense the last six, seven kilometers.
Um general classification, uh Toddy and uh Vindigo pretty much
stayed neck and neck, so there's really no s no significant
changes there.
If we're looking at the jerseys, uh Torstein Tran.
And let me tell you, they talked about five different ways of ex
of uh pronouncing his name.
Uh he's in the yellow jersey.
Uh Mods Patterson is in the green jersey, polka dot jersey
goes to Alex Buden, and then the white jersey is Matthias uh
Vasick.
So um very, very crazy day today.
Um tomorrow we're looking at 186 uh kilometers.
Uh, and this is going to be tomorrow, will really be the
first big uh true, true mountain days because they're gonna have
multiple uh category climbs.
So uh it'll be fun to watch the climbers.
I'm a big climber person.
I mean, I really like watching the climbs versus the sprints,
so um I'll get to see that tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Nice, nice.
Well, we have a wonderful friend.
Uh we rode this bus, we rode a bus with this gentleman for nine
hours to go to be five.
Yeah, I was gonna say to go four hours or whatever, it took nine
hours.
But uh uh friendship developed as as mentioned multitude of
times on uh on the show.
We've met him in Florida.
He was on an airplane today, and uh he's about 35,000 feet
somewhere over Texas, and he said, Hey gentlemen, uh you
should talk about uh let me see what he said here.
He said uh hello from 36,000 feet over somewhere in Texas.
Here's a tour to France rule that some may not know about.
It's against the rules to ride backwards on the tour, so you
can't go back to help a teammate.
That's reasonable for the riders, but it applies to
everyone, including mechanics.
Uh, I bring it up because on stage three, please fact check
me if I'm wrong, a team car went past a rider that was waiting
for a bike change.
When they realized this, the mechanic rode a bike back to the
rider.
The mechanic was fined 500 Swiss francs for the infraction.
I don't know why the reason to order France uses Swiss francs
instead of the Euros or dollars, it's a currency of choice.
So uh I decided this was the first piece of information of
our community member that wrote to us.
I think this is in chronological order because we had a bunch
today, which I'm really excited about.
So I looked it up and uh according to the UCI uh 1.2.064
slash 2.2.015.
Uh why is that important that I read all that to you?
Because there is substantial subquential uh rules like 0.6,
0.7, 0.8, because they kept having to change it.
Um, and and now everything is is uh the same up until 2024.
So what is allowed?
A rider can drop back by simply just slowing down or stopping at
the roadside and letting the race flow past them.
Uh they're still facing the right race direction or going in
the forward motion.
Uh they do this all the time.
They're waiting for the leader after a crash or a puncture,
pacing them uh back to the Peloton, maybe fetching a water
bottle from the team car, maybe giving a teammate their own
wheel or or bike uh per chance.
But that is that is actually allowed, and that's why they had
to change some of the rules because it was written in a way
where people, of course, interpreted the rules how they
wanted to, so that's why it had to be fixed.
Uh, what is forbidden?
Uh he's absolutely correct.
Armando says a physically turning around uh the bike
against the direction of the race.
This violates that rule.
I'm not going to read it again, but it counts as dangerous
riding.
Uh it's sanctioned by fines, times, penalties, and since
2004, now they c they give out yellow cards.
Uh, the practical reason behind the Peloton is to convoy the
team of cars, motos, ambulances doing 50 plus kilometers an
hour, rider heading backwards into that head-on collision is
waiting to happen.
Riders even get fined for riding back down the finishing straight
to their bus after a stage, and this has happened multiple
times.
Um, and mechanics, um, mechanics uh to help the rider, they're
not allowed to turn around whatsoever.
And that uh is one of the sequential rules to you know,
UCI, blah, blah, blah.
You can look into it if you want, but uh technical support
may only come from the team car, neutral service, uh, or the
broom wagon, and must be given to the rear of the rider's group
while stationary.
So while mechanical, you'd uh drift back or stop and wait for
the car to reach you.
So that was that was uh very interesting.
And you had mentioned that before we actually recorded.
Um, and so before I move on to another community member's
questions, uh anything to add to that, sir?
SPEAKER_01: No, I just think A, I was about taken out one time
on just a regular ride with somebody going the wrong way um
out in Iowa, but uh very dangerous.
Uh, there's good reason for it.
And uh yeah, that was a big talk on day three when that mechanic
and he didn't even go very far, but they're very serious about
that.
So um appreciate uh that question uh and having us look
into it because I think it's something important to
understand.
Um, because if your team car is not paying attention and he goes
by you and you need something, you have to catch up to if both
your team cars, because there's two team cars, you have to catch
up to those team cars.
They cannot come back and get you.
Uh you know, they cannot, you know, run back or anything like
that.
So thank you.
Great question or great uh point.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Wade Paul.
Definitely, definitely listening every day, and thank you.
He's been writing us every day.
Today, his his question is isn't one question I always have is
how points for the jersey secure.
Who um who uh is it who is the fastest through the gates or who
finishes each sprint first stage, etc.
And I do have a breakdown here.
Um I have the Combativity Award, uh, which the jury picks the
most aggressive rider after every mass start stage, except
for the final in Paris, and the rider wears a distinctive race
number the next day.
It was red and white for years, but since 2023 it's been gold
golden thanks to the sponsor of Century 21, including uh 2026.
Uh, there's a super competitivity award for the
whole tour, and that's presented in in Paris.
But how are jersey points uh distributed?
Green points jersey, it's cumulative, not first sprinter
wins.
The rider collects points at the finish of every stage, biggest
hauls on the flat stage, 70 for the winner in 2026, scaling down
through the 18th, fewer points on hilly mountain stages, um,
plus one intermediate sprint mid-stage each day, and the most
points wears the green jersey.
For the polka dotted, or what is the mountain jersey, or if you
have mentioned so far in each one of these episodes, the king
of the mountain.
Um, you've mentioned that on every episode, uh, but it's the
points at the top of every category categorized climb.
The harder the category, which is labeled HC down to a category
four, the more points with doubles of certain summit
finishes.
First over each gate, the KOM banner scores the most.
And the yellow and white jersey, it's not actually points, it's
pure cumulative time.
Lowest uh time overall, yellow, and amongst the among riders
under 26 wear the white jersey.
Uh so for green, it's not who's the fastest or anything on the
clock.
It's it's placing the designated lines and adding up over a total
of three weeks.
So, Wade, thank you for your continued uh um not only
support, but you know, asking your questions, and I thank you.
So uh I do have one more, but I wanted to give you a chance to
pipe in on that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the only thing I'd say is, and that's a good
point, is the KOM that stands for King of the Mountain.
So if you're watching it and they they always abbreviate it
and they'll say, well, the KOM points went to X rider, that's
what they're talking about.
It's like the first few riders up, like you said, get the
different points, and those are KOM points, and those go towards
specifically uh the polka dot or the King of the Mountain jersey.
SPEAKER_00: And the last thing I have is not actually official.
Uh our community member Mark wrote us and he said, Can you
talk about the caboose?
And um, when looking into it, it's actually called Latin
Rouge.
It used to be called caboose.
It's not actually official.
It's the last place rider named the red lamp on a train after
the red lamp on a train's rear car.
So your caboose instinct it says uh is is actually the Latin
Rouge, is purely unofficial, no jersey, no special number, no
prize.
The red number was always the combatitivity marker, but not
last place.
But what's really interesting about that is it goes on to say,
and I'll paraphrase um since we're trying to keep these nice
and short, that is still uh it's almost like going to a young
kid's sporting event where there's no score.
Oh, somebody knows the score.
I mean, there are people who are definitely paying attention to
who is the who is the caboose.
And but but then again, uh it made a funny comment is even as
someone who's the caboose after three weeks still says they rode
the Tour de France for three weeks.
SPEAKER_01: So they they finished it, and my hats are off
to all of them.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so those those were our community members who
reached out to us.
Um uh brings a big smile to my face.
I we know people are listening, and and um one exciting piece is
we were accepted by the Tour de France themselves, or at least
whoever is running their social media pages to be able to share
on on uh Tour de France.
So it's really yes, sir, yes, sir.
That's pretty exciting.
And you may have seen that today because it said you've been
approved or you've been labeled um uh on our on our Facebook
page.
SPEAKER_01: So they must have some pretty low standards.
SPEAKER_00: Well, they must, or they just really want to get the
publicity out for the Tour de France, and they're like, all
right, yeah, we'll take the these clowns, we'll take them
too.
Why not?
Exactly, exactly.
SPEAKER_01: So Michael's mom is it we're it's important that we
reach out to Michael's mom, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So uh I will uh short of community members
riding us in the middle of the night again or throughout the
throughout the workday tomorrow, uh tomorrow I will have the
nationality of the riders.
And so I I wanted to give due diligence for those who are no
no put put theirs first.
That's absolutely understandable.
So that's that's um that's the community, and that's what I my
interesting tidbits for those paying attention.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate it.
Um I'm having fun with this so far.
This is kind of cool.
Uh the names are killing me, I gotta admit.
Uh, but uh I'm working through them.
Uh I've had some some people prompt me on the uh correct
pronunciation of some of these names, so I appreciate it.
Bear with me.
Maybe by the end of this three weeks, uh I will get it
correctly.
So, or get it correct, so we'll see.
But uh hundred and eighty six what's that baransky?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, Barnansky call me Barn, you know what I
do?
I'm like, let me go get him, and then I set my phone down and
walk away.
SPEAKER_01: Can I speak with Mr.
Barnansky?
I'd like to talk to him about his uh car warranty.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know what?
Let me go get him.
I'll be right back.
SPEAKER_01: And then you just come back.
That's funny.
My phone is dinging right now with potential scam or spam.
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
There you go, buddy.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
Uh, that's it for today.
I look forward to tomorrow.
It should be good and see how the mountains treat him.
That sounds wonderful.
SPEAKER_04: Welcome to the city.