Sunweb's Cece Boll came within a whisker of her first Tour de France win on Wednesday's fifth stage of Prevas.

Boll appeared to have been given a perfect lead-out by his teammate, but "last man standing" Casper Pedersen pulled to the right, allowing Boll to pass on the inside of the gentle final curve, and Van Aert, who was stuck to Boll's wheel, bypassed Pedersen on the right side Van Aat was forced to bypass Pedersen on the right.

"With five kilometers to go I went to the front and everyone was very strong. Everyone ran great."

"In the end we had a good sprint and made no mistakes. But unfortunately, in cycling, sometimes you don't get rewarded as a team because there was one fast rider at the end," he admitted.

"In the end, Wout was just a little bit faster in the final. Of course, I am a little disappointed, but I am confident that if we continue to run like this we will win."

The 25-year-old Dutch rider, who joined Sunweb in 2019 from Continental team SEG Racing Academy, won three races last year at Nokèle Koase, Tour of California, and Tour of Norway, and earlier this season He added one more victory with a stage win at the Volta Ao Algarve.

With a third place on the Tour's opening stage in Nice on Saturday, a seventh place finish on Monday's stage 3 to Sisteron, and now a second place finish in Prevas, Bol has shown he is capable of winning a stage this year, and he and his team are already looking for another chance.

"The guys were great today. I would say it was a perfect lead-out. Everyone was in the right position and it was really impressive."

"We prepared really well for today's stage. We knew what to expect and we were able to fine-tune our plan over the last few days and this morning. We're focusing on strengthening the dedicated blocks of athletes, and we have a strong, dedicated selection here for the lead-out."

"We learned a lot from the first few sprints, and the hard work paid off; second place is a great result, and we're looking forward to the next few sprints. I think we can look back on this result and say it was textbook and we will be aiming for the top again next time in a few days," Winston said.