Frenchman wins Stage 5, Lance remains in 2nd
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Wed July 08 2009
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Posted Jul 8, 2009
- 17,368
PERPIGNAN, France - Thomas Voeckler of France claimed a
solo victory Wednesday in the fifth stage of the Tour de
France, a 122-mile ride from Le Cap d’Agde to Perpignan.
Following a long breakaway, Voeckler made his move 3.1
miles from the finish to escape from a small group of
riders and cross the finish line by himself.
Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland retained the yellow
leader’s jersey. Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance
Armstrong is second overall, by a fraction of a second,
with Astana teammate Alberto Contador of Spain 19 seconds
back in third.
“I was chasing that victory for such a long time,” Voeckler
said. “By superstition, I didn’t want to announce that my
objective was to win a stage. When I’m breaking away, I
often try to be positive but today I never believed I could
win.
“It was only 300 meters out that I started to believe.”
Mikhail Ignatiev finished second in the stage, while Mark
Cavendish won the peloton’s sprint and finished in third
place, 7 seconds back.
Voeckler, who broke his collarbone earlier this season, and
five other riders — Ignatiev, Anthony Geslin, Yauheni
Hutarovich, Marcin Sapa and Albert Timmer — broke away
after just 7½ miles and left the rest of the field trying
to catch up.
With the wind blowing sideways along the Mediterranean see,
the peloton pumped up the speed about 35 miles from the
line behind the push of Saxo Bank and Columbia riders. The
peloton ended up breaking into three pieces and riders were
scattered, but none of the favorites were trapped except
Giro d’Italia winner Denis Menchov of Russia.
As the pace eased momentarily, the second peloton caught up
with the first.
Cavendish and his Columbia teammates, following their
disappointing fifth place in the team time trial, moved up
to the front of the peloton, trying in vain to reduce the
gap with the six breakaway riders.
Less than four miles from the finish, the leading group was
reduced to four riders following an attack from Ignatiev, a
track specialist making his Tour debut. Voeckler, who wore
the yellow jersey for nine days in 2004, then bolted out of
a roundabout and went all out to the line.
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