July 9, 2009
Frenchman Voeckler wins stage with a perfect move
Yellow jersey is not a new achievement for Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) but Wednesday’s victory got tears in his eyes, as he shook his head and looked behind the charging sprinter and crossed the finish line to add another Tour de France stage victory to his name.
The stage 5 between Le Cap d’Agde to Perpignan had a distance of 196.5 km and 178 riders started the race. Piet Rooijakkers (Skil-Shimano) had to withdraw due to his crash in team time trial stage 4. Stage 5 consisted of two category-4 climbs (the col de Feuilla at 112.5 km and the cote de Treilles at 116.5 km) and three sprints (Capestang at 40.5 km, Saint-Jean-de-Barrou at 107.5 km and Canet-en-Roussillon at 158.5 km)
The first failed attack came from a Lampre team member but was quickly caught by the peloton. The next attack was at the 6 km mark by Beppy of Skil-Shimano team and was joined by Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Geslin (Francaise Des Jeux) and Sapa (Lampre – N.G.C). At the 12 km Mark Ignatiev (Team Katusha), Timmer (Skil-Shimano) and Hutarovich (Francaise Des Jeux) launched the next attack and joined the leaders at the 23 km mark they joined the leaders. When the leaders reached the 40 km mark the lead had increased to 9 minutes and 35 seconds. The first sprint was won by Geslin and Hutarovich came in a second place. We the race reached the cost there was lot of fight for position which was one of the reasons for accidents. The first crash was Staf Scheirlinckx (Silence – Lotto) and Stéphane Auge (Cofidis Le Credit En Ligne) at the 106 km mark and just one km after that was Matthew Lloyd (Silence – Lotto) turn. The worst crash was at the 120 km mark when Rabobank rider Robert Gesink fell in a gutter on the left side of the road. At this time the peloton split into 4 groups dude to aggressive riding by Fabian Cancellara, Andy Schleck and the Saxo Bank team.
In the last part of the race just 22 km from finish all the three trailing groups had joined the yellow jersey group. What can be said that the sprinter teams did not calculate which helped the break away group. At the 15 km mark the sprinter teams started an aggressive chase lead by teams like Garmin – Slipstream, Agritubel and Team Columbia – HTC but it was too late as the breakaway held to their advantage. With 5 km left to finish, Thomas Voeckler launched an all out attack which at the end of the day was he move resulting in a stage victory. Mark Ignatiev finished ahead of the peloton at second place. The late charge from the peloton was lead by Mark Cavendish who finished third and got some consolation points and gets to carry on the green jersey. Fabian Cancellara can just think his lucky stars and will get to wear the yellow jersey for another day.
Team Astana continued there amazing run and is probable favorites to be the no.1 team at the end of the race.
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Filed Under: Cycling
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