Voekler Earns Breakaway Win; Cancellara Keeps Yellow

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Experts had predicted a sprint finish for Stage Five in the 2009 Tour de France, and the experts were wrong. Instead of the powerful teams dominating the race and battling for the win, a lesser-known rider from a smaller team led a 184-kilomeeter breakaway and captured the stage win.

Thomas Voeckler of Bbox-Bouyges Telecom rode a smart and very fast race, cooperating with the other breakaway riders until five kilometers out, and then attacking after the others had spent themselves on their own attacks. Then Voeckler seized the moment and broke free, leaving the rest behind and crossing the line well ahead of the rest of the break.

The whole peloton finished en masse, so General Classification didn’t change. Fabian Cancellara kept the yellow jersey, and Lance Armstrong kept his identical time.

Stage Five,196.5 km from Le Cap d'Agde to Perpignan, is a fairly flat stage, partly along the coast and possibly plagued by winds 108 km into the course are a pair of Category Four climbs the 4 km Col de Feuilla followed immediately the 1.3 km climb up to Côte de Treilles—good places to launch attacks. However, the next 60 km are billiard-table flat—perfect for running down any breakaways. The final five km present a series of gentle undulations with a small hill cresting at 1.5 km. Then one km slightly downhill and 500 meters absolutely flat: in other words, an absolutely perfect stage for a sprint finish.

Astana Rules the GC

While Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara’s .22 second lead gave him the yellow jersey, in fact he and Lance Armstrong are tied. Team Astana has four more riders in the top seven. Armstrong, Contador, Andréas Klöden, and Levi Leipheimer control second through fifth, with Haimar Zubeldia in seventh.

These are all first-rate all-around riders; Armstrong and Contador are both excellent climbers, while Klöden and Leipheimer are strong everywhere. Astana has shown early that its riders are better prepared, better trained, better disciplined, and willing to work both hard and smart.

Voeckler Attacks 

The first attack of Stage Five was a three-man effort that quickly picked up three more: Thomas Voeckler of BBox led off, and with Yauheni Hutarovich and Anthony Geslin of Francaise des Jeux, Marcin Sapa of Lampre, Albert Timmer of Skil-Shimano, and Mikhaill Ignatiev of Katusha opened up a ten-minute gap.

Francaise des Jeux Directeur Sportif Frank Pineau explained that this was his team’s strategy for the stage: “I’m expecting a bordure like what happened at the end of Stage Three. Both those guys are good sprinters; if a split in the bunch occurs they will be able to slot into the front group.”  Good idea,  but a different rider executed it.

By the halfway point the lead was down to 3:20, as Garmin joined Columbia in pulling at the head of the peloton. Apparently Garmin wanted to be sure their sprinter Tyler Farrar got a chance to battle Columbia’s Mark Cavendish. But when the peloton hit the feeding station and the hills, they relaxed, allowing the gap to widen.

There was a spate of crashes as the peloton approached the first climb. Stephane Auge of Cofidis and Staf Scheierlinckx of Silence-Lotto crashed; then Bernard Eisel and a second Silence-Lotto rider, Matt Llyod, also crashed. All were able to continue.

Preparing for the Fight

After Stage Three, everyone was expecting an attempt to split the field when the peloton hit the thirty km along the Mediterranean. With the wind gusting at 25 mph, it would be a perfect place to attack.

After the first peak, Astana began massing riders at the front, sensing that a split might be coming. No one wanted to get caught out as they had been two days ago.

Rabobank rider Robert Gesink, a Tour rookie who was expected to finish in the top ten, crashed heavily. He finished the stage, but lost so much time he was in danger of being eliminated.

Cancellara Takes Control

At the 130 km mark, Fabian Cancellara attacked, trying to split the peloton. Cancellara showed immense strength, riding away from the peleoton briefy and raising the pace until the peloton fractured into four pieces. Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador were both in the lead group.

Around the 150 km mark, the various groups combined, with a large leading group and about thirty riders lost in the back. Astana, Garmin, Columbia, and Saxo Bank were all in the lead group, so the stage win and the overall lead was still yet to be decided. Meanwhile, the peloton rushed on at 50 kph.

With 20 km to go, the trailing group containing Garmin rider Dave Zabriskie and Quickstep sprinter Tom Boonen closed the gap on the main peloton, which was now averaging 54 kph.

The breakaway group of six were hitting an amazing 60 kph in their efforts to stay clear. The riders in the break were riding an extremely mature race. They were working as a team, not dicing for position, and sharing turns in the lead. This kind of cooperation was their only chance to win, and they were seriously threatening to spoil the sprinters’ day.

Team Columbia, which had been laying back to force some of the other sprinters’ teams do some work, decided to take over the peloton and drive the pace. The other teams had been unwilling to work at the front, hoping to tire out Team Columbia to blunt the explosive launch of the Manx Missile. Eventually, Team Columbia could not afford to wait; they needed to run down the breakaway to give Mark Cavendish a chance.

After letting the Columbia riders take a few pulls, Garmin-Slipstream decided to help a bit; they were banking on Tyler Farrar’s ability to get a jump on Cavendish if there were enough Garmin riders—and enough confusion in the pack—to spoil Team Columbia’s unstoppable lead-out train.

However, the unwillingness to lead jeopardized the chance to ever see a sprint. The breakaway riders were not fading.

The Breakaway Survives

With ten kilometers to go, the peloton realized that they had waited too long. The breakaway riders were flying, opening the gap rather than losing. The strong riding and smart cooperation was paying off, and the six riders, who had led the race since the twelve-kilometer mark, seemed likely to keep clear of the peloton.

With 6.5 km to go, the breakaway riders started sparring, with Katusha rider Mikhail Ignatief attacking; Skil-Shimano rider Albert Timmer chased him down, followed by the rest. With five km to go, Bbox rider Thomas Voekler attacked and the rest could not keep up.

Thomas Voekler opened a lead over the other five, working very hard to keep the pace high. Albert Timmer tried to bridge the gap, but he couldn’t catch Voekler.

Three km out the gap was 33 seconds; the peloton had missed its chance. Voekler knew he was free.

Thomas Voekler rode hard to the line, capturing the stage win. Albert Timmer couldn’t hold on; he was caught by the peloton. Mikhail Ingnatief managed to cross the line just meters ahead of the peloton, earning second place.

The race for the yellow jersey never developed. The contenders decided that wisdom dictated patience. Knowing that Stage Six, 182 km in Spain from Gérone to Barcelone, would be sufficiently hilly to burn out tired riders. This would be where the race for yellow would really start, and no one wanted to spend themselves too soon.

General Classification After Stage Five
	Rider	Team	Time	Gaps
1	Fabian Cancellara	Team Saxo Bank	15h 07' 49"
2	Lance Armstrong	Astana	15h 07' 49"	+ 00' 00"
3	Alberto Contador	Astana	15h 08' 08"	+ 00' 19"
4	Andréas Klöden	Astana	15h 08' 12"	+ 00' 23"
5	Levi Leipheimer	Astana	15h 08' 20"	+ 00' 31"
6	Bradley Wiggins	Garmin-Slipstream	15h 08' 27"	+ 00' 38"
7	Haimar Zubeldia	Astana	15h 08' 40"	+ 00' 51"
8	Tony Martin	Team Columbia-HTC	15h 08' 41"	+ 00' 52"
9	David Zabriskie	Garmin-Slipstream	15h 08' 55"	+ 01' 06"
10	David Millar	Garmin-Slipstream	15h 08' 56"	+ 01' 07"

 

	Stage Five Results
		Rider	Team	Time	Gap
	1	Thomas Voeckler	Bbox	4:29:35
	2	Mikhail Ignatief	Katusha	4:29:42	+ 00:07
	3	Mark Cavendish	Columbia-HTC	4:29:42	+ 00:07
	4	Tyler Farrar	Garmin-Slipstream	4:29:42	+ 00:07
	5	Gerald Ciolek	Milram	4:29:42	+ 00:07