Key moments

Stage Of Mixed Emotions: Pozzato Wins... ’Vino’ Loses

The winner of the fifth stage of the 94th Tour de France was Filippo Pozzato, but the loser of the day to Autun was Alexandre Vinokourov. While the Liquigas team can celebrate its first stage win in the Tour de France, the Astana squad will lament its losses because of crashes. Both Andreas Kloden and Vinokourov had accidents in the action-packed stage. There were 74 riders in the lead group but it’s surprising that there were so many as the pace of the final 20km was frantic: the technical descent almost threw Fabian Cancellara from his bike but the Swiss rider finished 12 in the stage and keeps his yellow jersey for another day. The other big winner was Sylvain Chavanel. Not only was he the most aggressive man, but he also led over each of the eight climbs to claim the polka-dot jersey on a day when he attacked early and swapped turns well with Philippe Gilbert, only to be swallowed up with less than 10km to go.

The 182.5km fifth stage from Chablis to Autun began at 12.56pm. There were 185 riders in the race with Di Gregorio (FDJ) retiring overnight because of a broken elbow sustained in a crash during stage four. The itinerary had eight climbs including the first category-two ascent of the 2007 Tour. The mountains classification points were contested at Grandes-Chatenaines (cat-4 at 39.5km), Domecy-sur-Cure (cat-4 at 52.5km), Champignolless-le-Bas (cat-3 at 58.5km), Coulon (cat-4 at 86.5km), Saint-Maurice (cat-3 at 98.5km), Chateau-Chinon (cat-4 at 119km), Haut-Folin (cat-2 at 135.5km) and Croix de la Liberation (cat-3 at 174km).
The intermediate sprints were in Avallon (at 36km), Montreuillon (at 94.5km) and Bibracte-Mont-Beuvray (at 145km).


Chavanel: Racing Into Polka-Dot Top
Sylvain Chavanel (COF) attacked at 13.5km mark and again at 19km, taking Bonnet (C.A) and Gilbert (FDJ) with him. They were chased by Cheula (BAR); at 24km the three led the Italian by 55” and the peloton by 1’45”. At the first sprint, the chase was 2’05” behind and the peloton at 8’40”. The average speed for the first hour was 38.7km/h.
Chavanel claimed first place points at the first three climbs, with Gilbert second at each summit. Chavanel became the virtual leader of general classification. CSC’s director Kim Anderson said at the start of the stage that his team wouldn’t defend Cancellara’s yellow jersey. It meant that chasing responsibilities fell to other squads. The maximum gain of the escape was 14’45” at the 54km mark but then the Liquigas and Rabobank team’s took charge of the chase. By the top of the third climb, the advantage of the escapees dropped to 11’10”. After two hours of racing, the bunch was 9’25” behind. The average speed for the 2nd hour was 34.5km/h. The teams that led the peloton included: Astana, Milram, Discovery Channel and Gerolsteiner. Brett Lancaster abandoned at the 80km mark. At the site of the 2nd intermediate sprint, the bunch was 6’05” behind.

Accidents, Attacks & Points Acquisition
Andreas Kloden (AST) crashed at the 107km mark but he remounted his bike quickly and rejoined the peloton within a matter of minutes. The average speed for the third hour was 38.7km/h. With 5km to climb on the Haut-Folin ascent, Chavanel increased the pace. Gilbert responded but both Bonnet and Cheula were dropped. Chavanel again collected first place points. The leading duo was 1’10” ahead of the chasing pair and the peloton was at 2’10”. Rasmussen (RAB) led the peloton to the summit of the Haut-Folin to begin his collection of climbing points. Chavanel collected 30pts from the first seven climbs and will wear the polka-dot jersey in stage six. Zabel (MRM) and Sastre (CSC) punctured early on the descent but rejoined the peloton quickly. With 30km to go, the peloton was 1’50” behind. Gilbert gained 14” worth of bonuses at the three intermediate sprints; Hunter (BAR) chased 3rd place points at the 3rd sprint, leading the peloton to the line at the 145km mark, 1’55” behind Chavanel.
Vinokourov crashed with 25km to go. He quickly remounted his bike but as he and six Astana team-mates chased, O’Grady and Vande Velde (CSC) went to the front of the peloton and upped the tempo. With 20km to go, escapees were 1’15” ahead of the peloton. Vinokourov was 1’00” behind the main pack.

The Dramatic Finale
Chavanel remained out front until the top of the final climb but was then swallowed up by a peloton that was controlled by Rabobank. Lefevre (BTL) was aggressive and an attack from him prompted Popovych (DSC) to follow. On the descent the Ukranian was joined by Cancellara but the two missed a left turn and ran off the road... but didn’t crash. That was when Lampre took charge of the peloton but they didn’t get the ultimate reward of the stage victory, that honor went to Filippo Pozzato of the Liquigas squad who outsprinted an elite field to claim his second Tour win. Zabel (MRM) finished fifth and moved into the lead of the points classification.
Fabian Cancellara recovered from his near miss and was 12th in the stage, at the same time as Pozzato and will wear the yellow jersey for stage six.

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Filippo Pozzato – “I like to dream, so…”

Today’s victory has increased his tally of Tour de France stage victories to two, after his success in Saint-Brieuc in 2004, but he’s not content to stop there. There’s always the chance to chase another win… but, he asks, why not also aim for the yellow jersey?

“Since the first stage I believed it was possible to win. With my victory in Milan-San Remo in 2005, I started to believe that I was one of the best, so every day I try to get amongst the action in the finale. It’s good to find myself in this position, but it’s with thanks to my colleagues at Liquigas who put in an enormous amount of work at the end of the stage. I was afraid that Valverde would be able make a move at the end because he is always fast. I also had to watch out for Bennati; his wheels touched mine in the rush to the line. Still, I’m just 35” shy of Cancellara and I love to dream, so… well, I’ll try very hard to win another one still.”

Sylvain Chavanel – “My priority is always a stage victory…”

He animated the stage early and spent most of the day in the lead of the stage but in the end Sylvain Chavanel was reeled in by the peloton. He visited the podium twice in Autun: once to collect the polka-dot jersey and again to receive the plaudits as the Most Aggressive Rider of the fifth stage. But the Frenchman still has one principle objective: to win a stage.

“The polka-dot jersey is a compensation for my efforts. It was a difficult day especially when you have to spend the whole time in the wind. Furthermore, when our advantage began to approach 15 minutes all the teams began to work and it was really difficult for us to stay away. Together with Philippe Gilbert we found ourselves in a position for a good finish and I started to believe it was possible to win the stage. But the final climb really slowed our progress.
“Today it’s true that I once again did all that I could but tomorrow it’s time to spend a day taking it a little easy. My there’s always a thought in the back of my mind; it’s just not possible to defend the jersey because it’s too much to ask in the big mountains… and my priority has always been to win a stage.”

Erik Zabel - "I’m not the fastest... but I’m still here"

It’s been over five years since the six-time points champion last won the green jersey but Erik Zabel is back in the color that made him a household name. He was expecting to be working for one of this Milram team-mates until the Wednesday prior to the start of the Tour but he’s adapted to his new role as leader.

“It’s fantastic to be back in the green jersey. The last time I won it was in 2001 and the last time I wore it was in 2002 so, for me, it’s a long time ago but it fits well. Normally I would have come to this Tour to lead out the sprints for Alessandro Petacchi. Unfortunately he’s not here so my role changed and maybe that’s the reason that I got to stand on the podium today. Last Wednesday my team manager told me, ‘Okay, now you have to sprint.’ I had just two days to think about this but I’m pleased to be able to get a reward.
“I know that I’m not the fastest anymore but I’m still there and I have a lot of fun in the peloton so that the most important thing for me.
“I’m happy to wear the green jersey for another day. I’ll think about it from day to day: Paris is so far away in my mind so I’m only thinking about tomorrow. The usual rivals are (Robbie) McEwen, (Tom) Boonen, (Oscar) Freire… but now also Pozzato. All the guys are there so I think this year it’s a little bit different because there’s no absolute favorite in the sprints: everybody can beat everybody so the interest in the points classification remains high.”

Fabian Cancellara - "I risked a little too much..."

On the final descent of a very animated stage, Fabian Cancellara looked like he might be able to pull off another victory for the CSC team. He was in the lead with only a few kilometers to go but then missed a left turn and ran off the road and almost crashed. He regained composure and caught up with the lead group and still had the legs to finish 12th in a frantic sprint. He’ll keep the yellow jersey for another day but soon his priority will be looking after two of his colleagues, Carlos Sastre and Frank Schleck.

“Everybody was trying to stay in the front group and sometimes accidents can happen when you take a few chances like I did in the last five kilometers. I risked a little too much but I wanted to defend my jersey and I want to say thank you to my team-mate for what they did today. I hope now that I will keep the jersey for one more day; that would be good.
“I wasn’t really trying to win the stage, I was only defending. I said to my team-mates that I’d do my best and I descended to the finish alone but before that they rode really fast to help me keep the lead.
“When we saw other teams working we decided to try and do something. Today we played the lottery and I think we won but we respected everybody and worked at the end but not right from the start because we’ve been working really hard for a few days and it was time for other teams to take some responsibility. So it’s fine by me that someone else got the win today.
“I don’t know what happened when I lost control. I was just trying really hard and it’s not that I wanted to win the stage but now it’s time to look after Carlos (Sastre) and Frank Schleck and I’ll do what I can to help.”

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