Dutch rider Kooij wins stage 5 of the Tour while Traeen keeps leader's yellow jersey

PAU, France (AP) — Dutch rider Olav Kooij won the fifth stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish on Wednesday, while Norwegian rider Torstein Traeen kept the yellow jersey on a day when the peloton largely took it easy.

Kooij was put in a strong position to attack by his Decathlon CMA CGM teammates and held off German Max Kanter and Belgian Tim Merlier in a dash to the line. They all finished in just under 3 1/2 hours.

“After a couple of hard days here I had to wait for this day to get (a) first chance to sprint in the Tour, and to immediately win is unbelievable,” the 24-year-old Kooij said. “It was quite an easy day until the final (moments), when you know it will be hectic. Everyone is still really eager and I just managed to find my way.”

It was first stage win on the Tour for Kooij, who has won three stages on the Giro d’Italia.

Traeen rolled over the line 14 seconds later in a big main group containing defending champion Tadej Pogacar and fellow Tour contender Jonas Vingegaard. They both trail Traeen by about eight minutes in the standings. But Traeen, who took the yellow jersey on Stage 4, is not considered a contender for overall victory.

After a testing team time trial, an early mountain stage, raging wildfires and sweltering temperatures hitting 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit), riders appreciated Wednesday's flatter fifth stage.

The 158.3-kilometer route from Lannemezan to Pau in southwestern France was made for sprinters.

It meant that Traeen's Uno-X Mobility team did not have to chase down any breakaway riders potentially in contention to take the yellow jersey from him, and that four-time Tour champion Pogacar and two-time champion Vingegaard could save vital energy for the days ahead.

Starting with Stage 6 on Thursday, where they are expected to attack each other on in the high Pyrenees mountains, and where Traeen could well lose the leader's jersey.

Riders were reluctant to form a breakaway group on Stage 5, so Frenchman Baptiste Veistroffer surged ahead alone until he was finally caught by the peloton with 13 kilometers remaining.

Stage 6 is a 186.2 kilometer trek starting with two moderate climbs before riders tackle Col d'Aspin — a mountain pass with a Category 1 rating, which is the second-hardest level on the Tour — followed by a grueling 17.1 kilometer ascent up Col du Tourmalet.

Tourmalet is among the most famed Pyrenean climbs on the Tour and is rated as HC, which means Hors Catégorie (beyond classification), because it is the hardest level.

A thrilling finish could be in store between Vinegaard and Pogacar given that the stage then ends with another climb, a 18.7 kilometer Category 2-level trek to the finish at Gavarnie-Gèdre.

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Norway's Torstein Traeen, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, third from left, rides with the pack during the fifth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 158.3 kilometers (98.1 miles) with start in Lannemezan and finish in Pau, France, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Norway's Torstein Traeen, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey drinks water as he waits for the start of the fifth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 158.3 kilometers (98.1 miles) with start in Lannemezan and finish in Pau, France, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar arrives for the start of the fifth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 158.3 kilometers (98.1 miles) with start in Lannemezan and finish in Pau, France, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Netherland's Olav Kooij celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the fifth stage of the Tour de France cycling race with start in Lannemezan and finish in Pau, France, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Netherland's Olav Kooij celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the fifth stage of the Tour de France cycling race with start in Lannemezan and finish in Pau, France, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan addressed her sentencing judge on Wednesday as she faced as much as five years in prison for ushering a Mexican defendant out of her courtroom to evade U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Dugan, 67, was convicted of felony obstruction in December. Her lawyers argued during her trial that President Donald Trump’s administration sought to “crush” Dugan in an effort to ensure judicial compliance with the ICE strategy of targeting immigrants as they showed up for court hearings.

Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution threatened "the independence of our judiciary." Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a social media post following her conviction.

The first witness Wednesday was a Marquette University law professor and a Jesuit priest, who read a statement in support of Dugan, describing her as a defender of oppressed people and saying he didn’t believe there was a need for punishment. “Hannah models what it means to be a Christian,” Gregory O'Meara said.

Dugan then rose to address the court, saying she's tried to do her best as a judge, and that her actions that day in April 2025 were not done maliciously but rather to maintain the “decorum and safety of the courtroom.”

"I have been cast as both a scofflaw and a hero. I am neither. I am a public servant who's just trying to do my job,” Dugan said.

Dugan's attorneys argued that as a judge she was immune from prosecution. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, who will hand down the sentence, rejected their attempts to vacate her conviction. While jurors found her guilty of felony obstruction, they acquitted her of concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor.

Prosecutors argued in a sentencing memo filed last week that Dugan violated her oath as a judge and put both law enforcement and the public at risk.

“Judges are entrusted with tremendous discretion, but there is a line they cannot cross,” Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling wrote. “The defendant crossed that line.”

Dugan’s attorneys argued she has been “punished enough,” including resigning as a judge and facing threats of violence. They argued in her sentencing memo that she should not be sentenced to any jail time besides the part of one day she already spent in federal custody.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, the presentence report calls for 15 to 21 months behind bars. The judge is not bound by those guidelines.

Prosecutors said the average sentence for obstruction cases is 16 months, but they did not recommend a sentence.

“This was a serious offense, and it warrants a correspondingly serious sentence,” Frohling wrote.

No matter what she is sentenced to, Dugan's attorneys said they plan to file an appeal.

Dugan's case marked the first time that a state judge in Wisconsin went to trial on charges of obstructing immigration agents.

On April 18, 2025, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.

Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and directed them to the chief judge's office, saying their administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient to arrest Flores-Ruiz.

After the agents left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. A week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan in the courthouse, leading her outside in handcuffs.

Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.

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Associated Press contributors include Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa. Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin.

FILE - Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan leaves the federal courthouse after a hearing in Milwaukee on May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)