photo credit @ LeTour.com
Boom wins, Nibali triumphs, Contador struggles, Froome pulls out
excerpts from LeTour.com
The legendary stage of the north of France including some cobbled sections has seen the abandon of defending champion Chris Froome who has crashed on two occasions… before the pavés. On a rain soaked day of racing, Lars Boom took a valuable victory in Arenberg-Porte du Hainaut, Vincenzo Nibali retained and increased his lead in the overall ranking while Alberto Contador lost more time than most of the other GC contenders.
Seven riders at the front
Stage 5 started in the presence of King Philippe of Belgium, former Prime Minister Yves Leterme and Eddy Merckx who flagged off the race and paid tribute to the victims of World War I in Ypres. Soon after the start proper, Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R) accelerated but it was an attack by Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) that generated the first breakaway. Those two riders were joined by Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Tony Martin (OPQS), Janier Acevedo (Garmin), Tony Gallopin (Lotto), Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Simon Clarke and Matt Hayman (Orica) to make it a nine-man front group. They eventually lost Acevedo due to a crash and Burghardt who was called back by his team to race as a helper for Tejay van Garderen and Greg van Avermaet.
Chris Froome out of the Tour Already affected by a crash in stage 4, defending champion Chris Froome (Sky) went down again at km 29. Escorted by four team-mates, the Brit made his way back to the bunch but that was only one of many crashes on wet and slippery roads even before the race hit the cobblestones sections. He crashed again and called it a quit at km 83, indicating that his right arm was injured.
Nibali wins battle over Contador
After reaching a maximum advantage of 3.05 at km 60, the breakaway riders were chased down by several teams, the most active being Peter Sagan’s Cannondale as the race approached the pavés. Several GC contenders like Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) were forced to ride behind the peloton to come across. The second cobbled section at Ennevelin saw Alberto Contador losing contact to the yellow jersey group. Nibali and Sagan together with a dozen of riders caught the remaining breakaway riders with 26km to go.
Nibali strenghtens the race lead
From a group of 15 riders who took the lead with 25km to go and included Nibali, Fuglsang, Westra (Astana), Sagan (Cannondale), Boom, Vanmarcke (Belkin), Kwiatkowski, Renshaw, Trentin (OPQS), Gallopin (Lotto), Cancellara (Trek), Lemoine (Cofidis), Clarke, Hayman and Keukeleire (Orica), Lars Boom marked the flying trio of Astana and rode away solo in the last cobbled section. Nibali made a huge impact on the race and gained almost three minutes over Contador while challengers Andrew Talansky (Garmin), Rui Costa (Lampre), Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) limited the damage at about two minutes, as well as Richie Porte who became the new captain of Team Sky after the sad exit of Chris Froome from the Tour de France.
Stage 5 Results NED 1 BOOM, Lars (BELKIN) 3:18:35 DEN 2 FUGLSANG, Jakob (ASTANA) + 19 ITA 3 NIBALI, Vincenzo (ASTANA) SVK 4 SAGAN, Peter (CANNONDALE) + 1:01 SUI 5 CANCELLARA, Fabian (TREK FACTORY RACING) BEL 6 KEUKELEIRE, Jens (ORICA GreenEDGE) POL 7 KWIATKOWSKI, Michal (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 1:07 NED 8 WESTRA, Lieuwe (ASTANA) + 1:09 ITA 9 TRENTIN, Matteo (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 1:21 FRA 10 LEMOINE, Cyril (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) + 1:45 RUS 11 PORSEV, Alexander (KATUSHA) + 2:02 AUS 12 HAYMAN, Mathew (ORICA GreenEDGE) BEL 13 VANMARCKE, Sep (BELKIN) BEL 14 BAKELANTS, Jan (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) AUS 15 RENSHAW, Mark (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) BEL 16 VAN DEN BROECK, Jurgen (LOTTO BELISOL) GER 17 MARTIN, Tony (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) FRA 18 GALLOPIN, Tony (LOTTO BELISOL) BEL 19 ROELANDTS, Jurgen (LOTTO BELISOL) + 2:08 AUS 20 PORTE, Richie (SKY) + 2:11 GBR 21 THOMAS, Geraint (SKY) + 2:19 USA 22 TALANSKY, Andrew (GARMIN SHARP) + 2:22 NED 23 DUMOULIN, Tom (GIANT-SHIMANO) + 2:28 FRA 24 PINOT, Thibaut (FDJ.fr) POR 25 FARIA DA COSTA, Rui Alberto (LAMPRE – MERIDA) ESP 26 VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro (MOVISTAR) FRA 27 BARDET, Romain (AG2R LA MONDIALE) RUS 28 TROFIMOV, Yury (KATUSHA) KAZ 29 GRUZDEV, Dmitriy (ASTANA) SVK 30 VELITS, Peter (BMC RACING) USA 31 VAN GARDEREN, Tejay (BMC RACING) KAZ 32 IGLINSKIY, Maxim (ASTANA) NED 33 LANGEVELD, Sebastian (GARMIN SHARP) + 2:33 NED 34 MOLLEMA, Bauke (BELKIN) + 2:44 ITA 35 MARCATO, Marco (CANNONDALE) ITA 36 BENNATI, Daniele (TINKOFF-SAXO) + 2:54 ESP 37 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF-SAXO) SUI 38 SCHÄR, Michael (BMC RACING) NED 39 VEELERS, Tom (GIANT-SHIMANO) SUI 40 RAST, Grégory (TREK FACTORY RACING) + 3:17 BEL 41 VAN SUMMEREN, Johan (GARMIN SHARP) + 3:38 BEL 42 WYNANTS, Maarten (BELKIN) NED 43 TERPSTRA, Niki (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 3:43 ESP 44 NIEVE ITURALDE, Mikel (SKY) + 3:46 CZE 45 KONIG, Leopold (NETAPP – ENDURA) FRA 46 PERAUD, Jean-Christophe (AG2R LA MONDIALE) SUI 47 ALBASINI, Michael (ORICA GreenEDGE) GER 48 VOSS, Paul (NETAPP – ENDURA) ESP 49 ROJAS GIL, Jose Joaquin (MOVISTAR) AUS 50 CLARKE, Simon (ORICA GreenEDGE)
General Classification after Stage 5 ITA 1 NIBALI, Vincenzo (ASTANA) 20:26:46 DEN 2 FUGLSANG, Jakob (ASTANA) + 2 SVK 3 SAGAN, Peter (CANNONDALE) + 44 POL 4 KWIATKOWSKI, Michal (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 50 SUI 5 CANCELLARA, Fabian (TREK FACTORY RACING) + 1:17 BEL 6 VAN DEN BROECK, Jurgen (LOTTO BELISOL) + 1:45 FRA 7 GALLOPIN, Tony (LOTTO BELISOL) AUS 8 PORTE, Richie (SKY) + 1:54 USA 9 TALANSKY, Andrew (GARMIN SHARP) + 2:05 ESP 10 VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro (MOVISTAR) + 2:11 FRA 11 BARDET, Romain (AG2R LA MONDIALE) USA 12 VAN GARDEREN, Tejay (BMC RACING) POR 13 FARIA DA COSTA, Rui Alberto (LAMPRE – MERIDA) GBR 14 THOMAS, Geraint (SKY) + 2:16 FRA 15 PINOT, Thibaut (FDJ.fr) + 2:25 NED 16 DUMOULIN, Tom (GIANT-SHIMANO) RUS 17 TROFIMOV, Yury (KATUSHA) NED 18 MOLLEMA, Bauke (BELKIN) + 2:27 ESP 19 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF-SAXO) + 2:37 BEL 20 BAKELANTS, Jan (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 2:39 SVK 21 VELITS, Peter (BMC RACING) + 2:44 ITA 22 MARCATO, Marco (CANNONDALE) + 3:23 SUI 23 ALBASINI, Michael (ORICA GreenEDGE) + 3:29 FRA 24 PERAUD, Jean-Christophe (AG2R LA MONDIALE) ESP 25 NIEVE ITURALDE, Mikel (SKY) POR 26 MACHADO, Tiago (NETAPP – ENDURA) + 3:59 ESP 27 ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, Haimar (TREK FACTORY RACING) SUI 28 FRANK, Mathias (IAM CYCLING) + 4:13 USA 29 HORNER, Christopher (LAMPRE – MERIDA) NED 30 TEN DAM, Laurens (BELKIN)
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