There is another day of flat racing and thus the consensus is that this will be another day for the sprinters but there are some lessons to take home from the early stanza of Le Tour 2012: accidents happen, riders can falter, and some lead-out trains are more organized than others. Peter Sagan missed out on adding points to his tally in stage five because of a crash. Matt Goss has been consistent and appears to be getting closer to his first Tour stage win. André Greipel's crew has proven to be the most formidable this year. And, on top of everything, there is a week of racing with weary legs and damaged bodies to consider.
We've seen three bunch sprints this year but each has been affected by a crash leading to the finish. Surely what we all want to see in Metz is all the specialists going head-to-head before the Tour arrives in the mountains. A true, pure sprint. That's the likely conclusion for stage six but a glimpse at the finish of stage five reminds us that the escapees are getting closer to pulling off a coup. Perhaps today will be the day that the attackers are the big beneficiaries.