Cavendish Delivers As Promised

The Progress Report _ The official start of stage five was at 11.42am with 178 riders still in the race. Three seconds after Christian Prudhomme declared the beginning of the stage, he announced that the attacks had begun. The longest stage of the 95th Tour de France, 232km from Cholet to Chateauroux, was contested under blue skies with temperatures rising above 20 degrees. There were no climbs in the stage but three intermediate sprints were on the menu. _ _ Soler Hernandez Quits _ It was reported that Soler (BAR) fell in the neutral zone before the start. Already suffering injuries from a fall on the opening day, the Colombian who won the polka-dot jersey last year finally succumbed and retired from the race at the 11km mark of stage five. _ _ Three French Form Escape Group _ Racing was fast at the start of the stage and it wasn’t until the 11km mark that an escape group could get clear of the peloton. The move was instigated by the aggressor at the start of stage one, Mr Jegou of FDJ. He was chased down by the French champion Vogondy (AGR) and Brard (COF). At the 14km mark, they were 1’00” ahead. A large leading margin was established quickly: 3’25” at 20km; 5’45” at 33km… but then it began to plateau as the Gerolsteiner team started to take charge of the pacesetting duties. The stage was raced at a rapid pace early with the average speed for the first hour 45.8km/h. The urgency of the chase eased and the advantage blew out again: 7’20” at 50km; 8’15” at 52km but Gerolsteiner always ensured that the gain didn’t get too severe. At 60km the lead dropped to 7’40”. The average for the second hour was 42.2km/h. Valverde (GCE) and Gadret (A2R) were involved in a crash around the 85km mark, but both remounted their bikes quickly although Valverde did consult the race doctor after the incident. _ _ Keeping The Escapees Honest… _ The escape appeared doomed when it failed to get more of an advantage than 8’15” at the 52km mark. Gerolsteiner kept Jegou, Vogondy and Brard in check all day. The gain dropped ever so slowly and so too did the average speed. The fourth hour was raced at 38.3km/h even though the Credit Agricole team moved forward and joined in with the chasing duties with about 85km to go. With 65km to go, the advantage was just 3’00”. It slowly diminished thanks to the fatigue of the leaders and the efforts of Credit Agricole and Columbia riders who did the most work at the head of the peloton. With 20km to go, the deficit was 1’20”; 10km – 35” and it appeared to be a formality of a capture but it went right down to the wire thanks to an attack from Vogondy in the final 1,500m. _ _ Setting Up The Sprint _ Vogondy opened up a good gap on his escape companions and although the sprint teams were breathing down his neck, he pushed on only to be swallowed up in the final 75 meters of the stage and finish 21st behind the best sprinters in the Tour. Liquigas and Columbia dominated the head of the peloton in the final kilometers while Quickstep also got into the mix. The sprinters really began their surge well before Vogondy’s capture and Cavendish easily beat Freire and Zabel to the line to claim his first victory in the Tour de France. _ Schumacher finished 26th in the stage and will keep the yellow jersey for stage six.