Lotto-Belisol Team

Stage 5 of the 2012 Tour de France, from Rouen to Saint-Quentin, is yet another one tailor-made for sprinters—almost pancake flat and having only the slightest of uphill rides into the finish.

The stage started under the shadow of yet more allegations against Lance Armstrong.  According to The Age, a report in the Dutch daily newspaper, De Telegraaf, named George Hincapie (BMC), Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp), David Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp) and Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) as the riders who made said allegations.

No one who follows cycling will be surprised to hear that a breakaway was designed out of the desire to get the sponsor’s name in front of the television cameras, rather than the expectation that it had any chances of going on to take the stage victory.

The art of the breakaway is something that the French teams, in particular, have mastered in order to maximise their sponsor’s exposure in a forum where it has the greatest impact.

In a deviation from the script, the breakaway was held in reach before being swallowed up inside the last 100 metres.

Despite the ever-present threat of rain, the stage was largely incident free. It saw nothing like the horror crashes of the previous stages: Konstantsin Siutsou with a broken leg, Jose Rojas with a broken collarbone and Maarten Tjallingii with a broken hip.

In a burst of rare courage and testament to the tremendous power of adrenaline, Tjallingii actually finished the stage with his injury.

Now that’s tough!

Mark Cavendish, once again, showed his intention to beat the pack in the remaining intermediate sprint.

Green jersey holder Peter Sagan again showed that he’s no match for the true sprinters on a flat road.

Stage 5 was always going to be about the final sprint.

The front of the peloton in the closing kilometres was a sight to behold.

Where the final sprint usually has one, or possibly two teams at the head of the pack driving the peloton home, there were five or six teams today, all hammering along at breakneck speed.

Team Sky was delivering Cavendish, Lampre had Alessandr Petacchi, Lotto Belisol had Andre Grepel, Orica-Green Edge had Matt Goss. It was precision riding at its best.

And then came another crash.

At 2.7 km to go, Tyler Farrar (Garmin Sharp Barracuda) crashed heavily, interrupting the run into the finish and taking down a number of other riders.

Most importantly, Peter Sagan was held up by the crash. He didn’t lose time, but he didn’t compete for points—which is a lot more important.

The final sprint was slightly uphill and Andre Greipel muscled his way to victory ahead of Matt Goss. Cavendish came in fifth on the stage.

The overall classification remains unchanged after Stage 5.

1.	CANCELLARA Fabian	RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	24h 45' 32''
2.	WIGGINS Bradley	SKY PROCYCLING	24h 45' 39''	+ 00' 07''
3.	CHAVANEL Sylvain	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	24h 45' 39''	+ 00' 07''
4.	VAN GARDEREN Tejay	BMC RACING TEAM	24h 45' 42''	+ 00' 10''
5.	BOASSON HAGEN Edvald	SKY PROCYCLING	24h 45' 43''	+ 00' 11''
6.	MENCHOV Denis	KATUSHA TEAM	24h 45' 45''	+ 00' 13''
7.	EVANS Cadel	BMC RACING TEAM	24h 45' 49''	+ 00' 17''
8.	NIBALI Vincenzo	LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE	24h 45' 50''	+ 00' 18''
9.	HESJEDAL Ryder	GARMIN-SHARP-BARRACUDA	24h 45' 50''	+ 00' 18''
10.	KLÖDEN Andréas	RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	24h 45' 51''	+ 00' 19''

Tom Boonen has turned the clock back seven years after he claimed a stunning victory over the tortuous cobblestones of the Hell of the North—the Paris-Roubaix—and again claimed the double after last week’s gritty victory at the Tour of Flanders.

It continues his rich vein of form, bringing up his ninth victory of the season.

Paris-Roubaix is a race that demands a superhuman effort both physically and mentally.

The riders take a pounding on roads designed for passage by horse and cart, made even more difficult by the dry, slippery dust that coats the stones. It takes tremendous concentration and bike control to stay out of trouble for the duration of the 257 km race distance.

Boonen is a big man. At 192 cm (6’4”) and 82 kg, he stands out amongst typical professional cyclists, but he handled his bike like he was a featherweight whilst delivering the power that only a big man can.

While most mortals would have still been in bed recovering from last week’s ride over similarly brutal roads of the Tour of Flanders, Boonen looked comfortable and in control for the whole race—he even rode without the gloves that afford the riders some modicum of shock absorption.

It was not just the fact that he won that was remarkable, it was the emphatic nature of the win. No one was going to challenge him today.

A crash with 109 km remaining split the peloton in half and while no one was injured, the delay finished the race for half the field.

It was again the sector through the Arenberg Forest where the pivotal move took place. On the most brutal section of cobblestones, the cream always rises and it was where Boonen turned up the heat on his competitors.

A crash in this section further broke up what remained of the peloton, taking out 12 riders in total.

With 55 km to go, Boonen and Omega-Pharma Lotto teammate Niki Terpstra combined to destroy fellow breakaway companions Alessandro Ballan of Team BMC and Filippo Pozzato of Farnese-Selle Italia.

Boonen then rode away from Terpstra and never looked like being caught.

Dutch rider Lars Boom from team Rabobank started to pull Boonen back with about 16 km to go, but he was unable to sustain the effort and Boonen rode away to win by over 1’30” from Team Europcar’s Sebastien Turgot and Allesandro Ballan, who may well have dead-heated for second.

While Boonen’s dominance in these two races is unquestioned, we may well have been robbed of two all-time great races when Fabian Cancellara crashed out in last week’s race.

Cancellara would have needed to be at the peak of his form, but it would have been brilliant to see.

Boonen’s emphatic victory brings his total to four wins in the Paris-Roubaix, joining Belgian compatriot Roger De Vlaeminck as the riders with the most cobblestone trophies on their mantlepiece.

Race Standings

1.	BOONEN Tom	11	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	5h 55' 22"
2.	TURGOT Sébastien	151	TEAM EUROPCAR	5h 57' 01"	+ 01' 39"
3.	BALLAN Alessandro	31	BMC RACING TEAM	5h 57' 01"	+ 01' 39"
4.	FLECHA GIANNONI Juan Antonio	51	SKY PROCYCLING	5h 57' 01"	+ 01' 39"
5.	TERPSTRA Niki	15	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	5h 57' 01"	+ 01' 39"
6.	BOOM Lars	22	RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM	5h 57' 05"	+ 01' 43"
7.	TOSATTO Matteo	121	TEAM SAXO BANK	5h 58' 53"	+ 03' 31"
8.	HAYMAN Mathew	54	SKY PROCYCLING	5h 58' 53"	+ 03' 31"
9.	VAN SUMMEREN Johan	1	GARMIN - BARRACUDA	5h 58' 53"	+ 03' 31"
10.	WYNANTS Maarten	28	RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM	5h 58' 53"	+ 03' 31"

The first day back after the rest day in the 2011 Tour de France was a gentle 158km jaunt from Aurillac to Carmaux.

The stage consisted of four classified climbs—two Category three and two Category four—most crucially a Category four climb about 20km from the end, which was used to try to break the dominance of Mark Cavendish.

The stage underlined how important a coherent team is, particularly to a top sprinter on a relatively flat stage.

Omega Pharma-Lotto chose the final to attack as a team to attempt to lose sprinters—particularly Cavendish—who will be challenging to get the green jersey off Philippe Gilbert. Gilbert himself took the opportunity to launch an attack off the front of the bunch.

Gilbert was joined by yellow jersey holder Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Tony Gallopin (Cofidis), Dries Devenyn (Quick Step) and Tony Martin (HTC), but the quality of the group made it a break that the peloton was never going to allow to succeed.

The HTC team took control of the race and dragged the peloton back to catch Gilbert with just under 5km to go, keeping the tempo high enough to catch any of the mini-breaks that tried their luck after that.

Sadly, however, the effort involved in catching Gilbert and Co. proved too much for HTC, which destroyed the highly polished lead-out train for Cavendish, leaving the Manx Missile to deliver himself into a position to challenge for the stage win.

Amazingly, Cavendish found himself second-wheel with 300 metres to race and paved the way for the grudge match between Cavendish and former teammate Andre Greipel from Omega Pharma-Lotto.

Greipel claimed the victory by half a wheel, and it heightened the well-established personal animosity between him and Cavendish, whose presence at HTC kept Greipel out of the Tour for years.

Today’s stage was thankfully free of the carnage and crashes that have been the hallmark of the Tour so far and did little to affect the overall standings in any of the jersey classifications.

It also marked a successful return to the race for Juan Antonio Flecha and Johnny Hoogerland, who were involved in the horrific crash with the TV car on Stage 9. Hoogerland has developed a cult status amongst cycling fans everywhere for his courage in riding with his horrible injuries.

Tomorrow is the last chance for the sprinters to accumulate points before the pain of three days in the mountains begins on Thursday with three brutal climbs.

The 2011 Tour is just getting started.

Standings and jersey holders courtesy www.letour.fr the official site of The Tour de France.

Jersey holders after Stage 10

		181	VOECKLER Thomas	TEAM EUROPCAR	42h 06' 32"
		32	GILBERT Philippe	OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO	226 pts
		204	HOOGERLAND Johnny	VACANSOLEIL-DCM	22 pts
		41	GESINK Robert	RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM	42h 10' 33"
			TEAM EUROPCAR		125h 37' 34"

Standings after Stage 10

1.	VOECKLER Thomas	181	TEAM EUROPCAR	42h 06' 32"
2.	SANCHEZ Luis-Leon	47	RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM	42h 08' 21"	+ 01' 49"
3.	EVANS Cadel	141	BMC RACING TEAM	42h 08' 58"	+ 02' 26"
4.	SCHLECK Frank	18	TEAM LEOPARD-TREK	42h 09' 01"	+ 02' 29"
5.	SCHLECK Andy	11	TEAM LEOPARD-TREK	42h 09' 09"	+ 02' 37"
6.	MARTIN Tony	175	HTC - HIGHROAD	42h 09' 10"	+ 02' 38"
7.	VELITS Peter	179	HTC - HIGHROAD	42h 09' 10"	+ 02' 38"
8.	KLÖDEN Andréas	74	TEAM RADIOSHACK	42h 09' 15"	+ 02' 43"
9.	GILBERT Philippe	32	OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO	42h 09' 27"	+ 02' 55"
10.	FUGLSANG Jakob	13	TEAM LEOPARD-TREK	42h 09' 40"	+ 03' 08"

What appeared to be a relaxed opening stage of the 2011 Tour de France descended into chaos within sight of the finish line as favourites Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck were caught up in a series of crashes.

It started out looking like a typical first stage with a small breakaway of riders establishing a gap which survived up until about 15km to go when the peleton decided to reel them in.

They stood no chance and merely served to give the contenders a target and act as a disincentive to other more serious breaks.

But at 9km to go, the chaos began.

An Astana rider clipped a spectator who was looking the wrong way, bringing down a large chunk of the bunch, including Contador and Schleck.

At the head of the field, the pace was on and did not let up to allow the fallen riders to catch up leaving them to expend a lot of energy trying to minimise the damage, until that too took its toll and led to another crash with about 2.5km to go.

Phillipe Gilbert of Omega Pharma-Lotto eventually took out the stage after Fabian Cancellara made a valiant but ultimately doomed attempt to sneak away and claim the stage win, but went too early and cost himself a place in the top 10.

Team BMC’s Aussie leader Cadel Evans kept out of trouble to claim second place at three-seconds behind with the main bunch a farther three seconds back.

This could be just the start that Evans needs to give him the confidence for a big result. Suffice to say that luck and Evans are usually complete strangers.

The story of the day, however, is going to be the damage done to the early favourite’s chances.

It wasn’t clear whether either Contador or Schleck actually crashed or whether they were merely delayed. Either way, they finished 1:20 behind Gilbert and that’s a big deficit to pick up on the first stage—particularly if either of them actually ended up coming off their bikes.

Tomorrow is the team time trial, so there will be no way to hide any injuries or soreness and, although it’s comparatively short at 23km, it will require riders to push hard right from the outset.

So, 2011 is off to a surprising start with the field being shaken up from the very start. Whether or not it will have an impact on the outcome of the race remains to be seen, but it’s certainly added an element of early interest that few would have been expecting.

1.      GILBERT Philippe        32    OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO     4h 41' 31"  
2.      EVANS Cadel            141    BMC RACING TEAM                + 00' 03"
3.      HUSHOVD Thor           51    TEAM GARMIN - CERVELO      + 00' 06"
4.      ROJAS Jose Joaquin   88    MOVISTAR TEAM                     + 00' 06"
5.      VAN DEN BROECK J. 31    OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO       + 00' 06"
6.      THOMAS Geraint       117    SKY PROCYCLING                   + 00' 06"
7.      KLÖDEN Andréas       74     TEAM RADIOSHACK                + 00' 06"
8.      TAARAMAE Rein       151    COFIDIS                                   + 00' 06"
9.      HORNER Chris            72    TEAM RADIOSHACK                + 00' 06"
10.    MARTIN Tony             175     HTC - HIGHROAD                    + 00' 06"