Freire Wins On The Day Boonen Just Misses Out...

Four climbs: Mont des Fourches (category-4, at 10.5km), Cote du Buquet (category-4, 109.0km), Cote de Saint-Gregoire-du-Vievre (category-4, 134.5km) & Cote du Boulay (category-4, 159.0km). _ Intermediate sprints: Les Andelys (at 66.5km), Saint-Gregoire-du-Vievre (140.5km) & Pont-L’Eveque (175.0km). _ Weather conditions: The temperature at the start was 22 degrees Celsius in the air and 27 degrees at road level. There was virtually no wind and, despite slightly overcast conditions, there has been no rain during the 93rd Tour de France. _ Number of starters: 172 – no overnight retirements. Official start time: 11.54am. _ _ The Progress Report _ _ Eight Break Free – But Only Two Push On… _ The first attack of the stage was from Laurent (AGR) at the 8km mark. He was chased down and three riders from the Bouygues Telecom team (Pineau, Fedrigo & Geslin) who claimed the points of the first climb. The first successful escape came from Dumoulin (A2R), Lang (GST), De Groot (RAB), Righi (LAM), Tankink (QSI), Auge (COF), Quinziato (LIQ) and Schroder (MRM). They attacked at the 20km mark; 4km later they were 30” ahead. Credit Agricole, Davitamon-Lotto and Bouygues Telecom chased hard to reel in the escapees. At 38km, Dumoulin and Schroder attacked the lead group; the others waited for the peloton. At 42km, the leading pair was 1’15” ahead of the peloton. The escapees covered 45.5km in the first hour and their advantage grew to 3’30”. The lead grew steadily: 5’30” when the peloton was at 50km; 7’00” at 54km; 8’00” at 58km; 10’20” at 69km… Dumoulin had a bike problem at 75km and, as he had it fixed, Schroder also stopped and waited for his escape companion. Quickstep picked up the pace of the peloton after 82km. _ The maximum gain was 12’50” at the 84km mark. The average speed for the 2nd hour was 39.9km/h. At 100km the advantage dropped to 10’50”. _ It started to rain at the 115km mark. At the feedzone (117km) the peloton was 8’30” behind Dumoulin and Schroder. The pace of the chase continued to be set by Quickstep riders. The average speed for the 3rd hour was 38.7km/h. _ _ Pineau & Vansummeren Chase Climbing & Sprinting Points _ Four Bouygues Telecom riders led the peloton over the 3rd climb, allowing Pineau to claim one point for third at the summit. The leading pair was 7’30” ahead at the Cote de Saint-Gregoire-du-Vievre. Shortly after this climb, Vansummeren (DVL) attacked the peloton in the quest to claim third place at the 2nd intermediate sprint; he did just that, crossing the line 6’40” behind Dumoulin and Schroder (the peloton was at 7’20”). Vansummeren employed similar tactics at the first sprint: attacking, claiming third-place points and then sitting up to wait for the peloton. Brochard (BTL) led Pineau to the top of the 4th climb to claim third place with the peloton right behind them. The deficit to the two leaders was 6’00”. At 164km, 5’30”… Vansummeren repeated his tactics for the third sprint, claiming third (behind Dumoulin & Schroder), crossing the line 4’25” later; the peloton was at 4’40”. Credit Agricole, Davitamon-Lotto and Quickstep set the pace of the chase. With 25km to go, the peloton was at 2’35”; 15km to go – 1’50”; 10km to go – 1’00”; 5km to go – 15”. The escape was over with 2km to go. _ _ Oscar Beats Tom… _ There was a crash in the final two kilometres that involved Galvez (2nd in stage four). All the other usual sprint candidates were all present in the race to the line. Steegmans (DVL) did one final turn of pace before the specialists took over in the final 400m. Freire launched his run down the right side of the road and held off a fast finishing Boonen. It is the Spaniard’s second stage win in the Tour de France. Boonen’s second place ensures that he will ride stage six in the yellow jersey.