Cavendish runs out of gas a bit short, Sagan caught up in late crash
André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) punched his way to a second win in a row in the Tour de France, this time on stage five into Saint-Quentin. It was the second sprint in as many days that was contested without one of the major players, as this time it was green jersey holder Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) caught up behind a late crash involving Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp).
After letting the day’s breakaway hang out to dry in the run up to the finish, the peloton almost allowed the early quartet to hold on for the win, as Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was only caught inside the final 300 meters.
Greipel was also a bit slowed up behind the crash involving Farrar, but Lotto-Belisol held their lead out together. After surviving the uphill drag into a final left hand bend, Greg Henderson sprung team-mate Greipel, who turned up his speed to come around a fading Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge), who threw his bike for second.
JJ Haedo (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) came up on the right for third, and Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) held off Mark Cavendish (Sky Procycling) for fourth. After getting caught up in a high speed crash yesterday, Cavendish didn’t quite have the legs to finish off stage five.
“I’ve won again a stage in the Tour de France. It was a bit crazy because I was behind the crash with three kilometres to go, but Greg Henderson was waiting for me,” Greipel said of his lead out man. “He brought me back in the train. The Lotto-Belisol train was working perfectly again. It was a really hard sprint uphill. I think it was one of the hardest sprints I’ve ever done.”
Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan) finished in the main field to hang onto the yellow jersey for another day, while the top of the general classification remains unchanged.
Having been unable to contest the sprint, Sagan still leads the competition with 157 points. Goss is second with 137 and Greipel is third at 132, though he hasn’t contested the intermediate sprint in either of the last two stages.
The peloton opts for another day of rest and relaxation
At the drop of the flag outside Rouen, Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ-BigMat) moved away from the field without much resistance, so Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun), and Jan Ghyselinck (Cofidis) joined him. The quartet had a couple minutes on the main bunch after just a handful of kilometers, and forty kilometres into the stage, their lead was 5’30”.
News came down of the abandonment of Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano), who tried to take on another stage with ongoing stomach problems, but decided to pack it in after 40km – not what the young sprinter wanted in his first Tour de France. However he has a bright future ahead and will have another chance in the future.
In the escape and the peloton, everyone settled into a rather leisurely pace, as the joint decision seemed to be to take advantage of the day with no king of the mountains points and no wind to influence proceedings. Though it would eventually play a part in the finale, the breakaway was kept in check all day, and with 100 kilometres to race, the escapees were less than four minutes ahead.
At 90km to race and with the gap down to 2’50”, Ladagnous grabbed the 20 points available at the intermediate sprint. Lead outs organized in the peloton for the minor placings, as FDJ-BigMat, Liquigas-Cannondale, Sky, and Orica-GreenEdge all lined up men across the road.
With the lime green Italian squad leading out this time for Sagan, Sky sent forward its own train on the left, springing Cavendish. The British rider got the most remaining points ahead of Goss. Sagan was pinned in a bit between Cavendish and one of his lead out men, allowing Renshaw to sneak past for an extra point behind.
Dark clouds were on the horizon, with the occasional cloudburst overhead, and with 80km to go, the first of several showers dampened the field. For the next thirty kilometres, the breakaway cycled through methodically and conversations were carried out in the peloton. The gap to the escape undulated as gently as the French countryside, at one point back over three minutes, and then down toward two. At just under three minutes with 40km to go, the peloton started moving with purpose as more raindrops appeared.
Pedalling through an enthusiastic crowd in the town of Nesle, the main bunch had whipped things into shape, with the leading quartet coming through town just 90 seconds ahead.
Urgency in the breakaway would eventually increase as well, and in the peloton, Lotto-Belisol, Orica-GreenEdge, and Garmin-Sharp had all formed lines at the front. A bit later, Team Sky made its first appearance at the head of affairs, maybe not wanting a repeat of yesterday, when their world champion sprinter was caught in a crash a bit further back in the field than perhaps he would have liked to be.
A long drag sprint coming but the break almost foils it
With twenty kilometres to go and the gap to the escape nearly at a minute, the situation held steady to almost a daring point. While his team was getting organized near the front, Sagan chose to follow the wheel of Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-BigMat) and his team-mate before finding the wheels of his own. Under the ten-kilometre banner, the escape seemed to be properly in check. While the four men up front were obviously tiring, they held the modest lead while Lampre-ISD and BMC Racing lined up behind. Sky Procycling had its entire squad on the left side of the road, eight men strong with Cavendish and Edvald Boasson Hagen at the rear.
While the number of kilometres ticked down quickly, the gap to the break did not. At five kilometres to race, it was 30 seconds, and two kilometres later, it was still at 20 seconds. Simon, with an impressive four wins on the season, started to believe in number five, and the Frenchman kept the pace high.
Then the big crash in the peloton further hampered their chase. Farrar and an Argos-Shimano rider were shoulder to shoulder, with Farrar a bit off balance, just as a Lampre-ISD rider moved slightly to his right, sending Farrar the rest of the way over. Brakes were grabbed frantically behind, and while it appeared no one else crashed hard, Sagan couldn’t avoid a slow skid on his hip, and a Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank rider went over the curb and rolled toward a building.
Up front, Ghyselinck made a serious dig as the road tilted upward, momentarily getting away from his breakaway mates with the peloton screaming toward them. But as the Belgian faded as the road got steeper, Urtasun found new legs and took the lead. With Lotto-Belisol breathing down, the Basque rider soon cracked as well, and around the final left-hander, Greipel took off.
Goss had had to go too early and the Aussie faded to second, while Haedo may have left it a bit late, coming hard up the right side for third. Cavendish was too far back and had to make do with fifth.