team Columbia, with perfect organization, kept all their riders at the front to push the pace, while other teams could only keep one or two leadout riders and a sprinter within striking distance.
When Cavendish made his move at 300 meters, there was only Thor Hushovd near him, and Hushovd couldn’t catch him. Veteran Erik Zabel and sprint star Oscar Friere came close, but Cavendish had the legs and the heart, and took the win.
Another Stage for Sprinters
Stage Five was another stage tailor-made for a big sprint finish. The stage, the longest of the Tour at 232 km, was almost completely flat, with just a few small climbs spread out through the course, and a flat finish. The final fifty km sloped gently uphill, but the final kilometer had just a few undulations.
The sky was clear, the wind was light, and finally there seemed to be no obstacles preventing the sprinters from finally having a stage to showcase their specialty.
After being frustrated in Stage Two and left behind in Stage Three, it was almost certain that the sprinters would keep any breakaways in sight; the chance of a break surviving seemed nearly nil.
Ina sad note, 2007 King of the Mountains Juan Mauricio Soler, who crashed and fractured his wrist in Stage One, crashed again in the neutral zone (the warm-up section at the start of the race.) Though Soler was able to remount, he soon parked and withdrew from the Tour.
Waiting to Pounce
The race started at a very high pace. There were several attempted attacks but the peloton was moving so fast, none could stay away.
Around 11 km a three-man break managed to escape, but no one gave them a chance of staying clear to the end.
Lilian Jegou of France de Jeux started the attack, followed by Nicolas Vogondy of Agritubel and Cofidis rider Florent Brard. The breakaway got more than eight minutes ahead before the peloton raised the pace and cut the gap to five minutes.
The peloton cruised at just under 42 kph until about the 150 km mark, and then began slowly reeling in the break. The riders at the head of the peloton could be seen talking among themselves, probably agreeing not to catch the break too soon—which would encourage more attacks—but also not to wait too long.
The teams realized that Stage Five was probably the last chance in the Tour for their sprinters to get a good run, as the Tour will be entering the foothills and them the Pyrenees proper in the next several days, so the riders were willing to cooperate to set up a good bunch sprint at the end.
Team leader Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) (L) rides in the pack with Xavier Florencio (Bouygues Telecom) (R) during Stage Five of the 2008 Tour de France.
With fifty km to go, the gap to the breakaway was 2:40. In the peloton, the lead out riders were eating and drinking, preparing to run down the break and set up their trains o support riders to get their sprinters into the final few hundred meters with good speed and good position.
Gerolsteiner and Team Columbia led the peloton, keeping the pace high. With 35 km to go, the gap was down to 1:35.
Attacking the Attackers
At 210 km gone, the gap to the breakaway was still over a minute. The peloton was waiting as long as possible, risking losing the breakaway, in order to catch them up as close to the finish as possible. The pack riders knew that as soon as the breakaway was caught, the charge to the finish would start, and no team wanted to have to be the first to lead out and possibly run out of energy short of the line
The breakaway, knowing that this was the moment of truth, picked up their pace, gambling that the peoloton would miscalculate and let the break escape. The three riders on the break were all very experienced; they had conserved energy through the length of the race, so that they had a chance to hold off the pack.
With 20 km to go, the peloton picked up the pace, but the gap wasn’t falling.
With ten km to go, the peloton got serious, cutting the gap in half. The Liquigas team moved to the front of the peloton, pulling for Francesco Chicchi, along with Credit Agricole, trying to set up Thor Hushviod.
Columbia rider George Hincapie had a rear-wheel puncture, and dropped all the way to the back of the pack. With a great show of strength, he pushed his way all the way back to the head of the peloton and to lead his team.
With five km to go Team Columbia swarmed the head of the peloton with George Hincapie, Marcus Brughardt and the rest pulling for Mark Cavendish.
Also at 5 km, Suanier Duval rider Aurélien Passeron unfortunately hit a spectator who strayed onto the course. Passeron was able to continue, and the spectator was not seriously injured.
With three km to go, Gerolsteiner rider Heinrich Haussler crashed hard; apparently he touched the wheel of another rider who braked slightly going around a tight right-hand corner over uneven cobblestones.
The high-speed, tightly packed peloton as it sets up for a bunch sprint is a very dangerous place; a slight touch of the brakes or waver of a wheel can bring down a group of riders.
With 2.5 km to go, Liquigas started falling back; they had not gotten enough riders to the head, spent their leadout riders and couldn’t keep up. Barloworld riders started charging, Agritubel and Columbia as well. Hincapie, amazingly, still had the strength to ride hard, after coming back from last place, ten km out.
The lead riders were setting a blistering pace, to keep any teams from moving up for the final sprint.
With 1.2 km to go, Nicolas Vogondy, two-time Chapion of France, made an attack, leaving the other two breakaway riders behind. Columbia and Quickstep led the peloton, which ran down Lilian Jegou and Florent Brard.
Vogondy, amazingly, stayed out in front, while only Columbia, which had showed superb organization, was a real presence at the front. Credit Agricole had Mark Renshaw leading Thor Hushovd, but Columbia had too much power.
With 300 meters to go, Vogondy made a fresh attack, driving himself even harder. At that moment, Mark Renshaw, with Hushovd right on his wheel, caught up to Mark Cavendish and the Columbia team.
Realizing that it was then or never, Cavendish broke out, leaving his teammates and driving toward the line. Hushovd took off too, but Cavendish was too fast.
The sprinters swept by Vogondy with 50 meters to go, ending his courageous attempt.
The rest of the sprinters broke out: Oscar Freire for Rabobank, Erik Zabel for Milram, and Baden Cooke for Barloworld, but they had left it too late.
Mark Cavendish for American Team Columbia, with an heroic ride, held off all the other sprinters for twice the length of a normal sprint finish to take the Stage Five win.
| Stage Five Results | ||
| Place | Rider | Team |
| 1 | Mark Cavendish | Team Columbia |
| 2 | Oscar Freire | Rabobank |
| 3 | Erik Zabel | Team Milram |
| 4 | Thor Hushovd | Credit Agricole |
| 5 | Baden Cooke | Barloworld |
| 6 | Robert Hunter | Barloworld |
| 7 | Leonardo Duque | Cofidis |
| 8 | Robbie McEwen | Silence-Lotto |
| 9 | Francesco Chicchi | Liquigas |
| 10 | Julian Dean | Garmin Chipotle |
| General Classification | ||||
| Place | Rider | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Stefan Schumacher | Gerolsteiner | 19h 32' 33” | 0 |
| 2 | Kim Kirchen | Team Columbia | 19h 32' 45” | + 00' 12” |
| 3 | David Millar | Garmin Chipotle | 19h 32' 45” | + 00' 12” |
| 4 | Cadel Evans | Silence-Lotto | 19h 32' 54” | + 00' 21” |
| 5 | Fabian Cancellara | Team CSC Saxo Bank | 19h 33' 06” | + 00' 33” |
| 6 | Christian Vandevelde | Garmin Chipotle | 19h 33' 10” | + 00' 37” |
| 7 | George Hincapie | Team Columbia | 19h 33' 14” | + 00' 41” |
| 8 | Thomas L�vkvist | Team Columbia | 19h 33' 20” | + 00' 47” |
| 9 | Vincenzo Nibali | Liquigas | 19h 33' 31” | + 00' 58” |
| 10 | Jos� Ivan Gutierrez | Caisse D'Epargne | 19h 33' 34” | + 01' 01” |
| Team Standings | ||||
| Place | Team | Nation | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Garmin Chipotle | USA | 58h 37' 35” | 0 |
| 2 | Team Columbia | USA | 58h 39’ | + 01' 44” |
| 3 | Team CSC Saxo Bank | Denmark | 58h 40' 10” | + 02' 35” |
| 4 | Cofidis | France | 58h 41' 06” | + 03' 31” |
| 5 | Gerolsteiner | Germany | 42h 17' 30” | + 03' 31” |
| 6 | Caisse D'Epargne | Spain | 58h 41' 18” | + 03' 43” |
| 7 | Liquigas | Italy | 58h 42' 05” | + 04' 30” |
| 8 | Quick Step | Belgium | 58h 42' 43” | + 05' 08” |
| 9 | Barloworld | UK | 58h 43' 06” | + 05' 31” |
| 10 | Euskaltel-Euskadi | Spain | 58h 43' 49” | + 06' 14” |
Friends Read Free