CYCLING TOUR DE FRANCE:THE TOUR de France is always better for a stage win by a native rider, and there was widespread rejoicing when Thomas Voeckler rode into Perpignan's Place de Catalogne blowing kisses yesterday, a couple of hundred metres ahead of the field.
Since no Frenchman has won the Tour for almost 25 years, and even stage wins are relatively rare, Voeckler’s achievement is as good as it is likely to get this year for the nation of Maurice Garin, the inaugural winner in 1903, and Jacques Anquetil, the first to reach five victories.
Nothing much changed as a result of the day’s events, except perhaps the mood of France’s cycling public. The bunch crossed the line seven seconds behind Voeckler, the survivor of a long six-man break.
A characteristic, last-minute dash brought third place for a dissatisfied Mark Cavendish, who retains the points leader’s green jersey for a third day, while Fabian Cancellara maintains his fractional advantage over Lance Armstrong in the overall classification.
Cavendish and his Columbia-HTC squad believed that, once again, other teams with sprinters had not done enough to bring back the break, thus costing the Englishman an early chance of equalling last year’s record of four stage wins. He may have another opportunity today, when the race leaves France and enters Catalonia for a stage running from Girona to Barcelona, with an uphill finish below the Olympic stadium on Montjuic.
Yesterday, however, was about Voeckler, who is known as Le Chou-Chou – the sweetheart. He is a small, modest and eloquent man who turned 30 last month and whose supreme achievement to date came five years ago yesterday, when he took the maillot jaune on the fifth stage of the Tour and retained it, against the odds, for 10 days. He held off Armstrong all the way through the Pyrenees and only relinquished the leadership when they reached the Alps.
On that occasion Voeckler did not need to win the stage to take the jersey, so this was his first stage win in the Tour.
“Five years is a long time,” he said last night, “but it’s not as though I haven’t done plenty of things in that time, like wearing the polka-dot jersey.”
Voeckler was born in Alsace, came to prominence when he won the 2004 French national championship, and within days of that achievement had made his first mark on the Tour. A more than useful climber, he held the King of the Mountains jersey briefly in 2005 and 2008.
This year he has added the Etoile des Besseges and the Tour du Haut Var to his laurels, and is clearly in fine form.
He made the break during the early stages in the company of Mikhail Ignatiev of the Katusha team, Marcin Sapa of Lampre, Albert Timmer of Skil-Shimano and two Francaise des Jeux riders, Anthony Geslin and Yauheni Hutarovich. By the time they rode beneath the banner advertising the Bal des Sapeurs-Pompiers de Montady, 30km into the stage, their lead was approaching nine minutes, and it was not until they had left the department of Herault and were rolling along the sun-dappled avenues of plane trees in the wine-growing villages of the Aude, serenaded by a brass band in the village of Salleles, that it started to come down.
Once again Cavendish’s team were doing most of the work, helped by the riders of Saxo Bank, Cancellara’s Garmin-Slipstream and Armstrong’s Astana, with Liquigas and Cervelo occasionally in evidence. With 75km to go, as they came out of the hills and on to the flat road running between the Golfe du Lion and the Etang de Leucate, they tried to do what they had done two days earlier, taking advantage of a crosswind that was whipping up the water with an acceleration aimed first at splitting the peloton and second at the apparently simpler task of catching the breakaway sextet.
The bunch duly split into three sections, but gradually re-formed as no team showed the necessary vigour to reinforce the Columbia riders’ efforts. The gap to the break came down, but only to a minute or so.
With just under 7kms to go it was Ignatiev, a Russian rouleur known for his strength, who made the first attempt at a solo break. Quickly reeled in by Voeckler, he tried again with an effort that met the same fate. Just after the 5km banner, Voeckler jumped away on a right-hand bend and, glancing back, saw the others hesitating as they tried to guess each other's intentions. It was all he needed. Guardian Service
*Nicolas Roche did not contest the sprint for third, rolling in 44th. "With five kilometres to go I saw that we were not catching the breakaway, and I was not feeling the best either," he said. "I knew it would be a tricky run-in with the roundabouts and a very quick sprint. I decided to just stay where I was."
He remains 48th overall, three minutes and 16 seconds off Cancellara’s yellow jersey.
The Irish road race champion said that, if he is feeling good, he might ride aggressively today.
“Hopefully I will give it a go at the end tomorrow, or maybe even try to get in a breakaway,” he stated. “My morale is pretty good after placing eighth on Sunday and then the team riding well in the team time trial on Monday. We’ll see how I am going tomorrow.”
Stage Five Details
Le Cap d’Agde — Perpignan, 196.5km
1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom 4hrs 29mins 35secs, 2 Mikhail Ignatiev (Rus) Team Katusha at 0.7, 3 Mark Cavendish (Brit) Team Columbia HTC, 4 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin Slipstream, 5 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram, 6 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Team Katusha, 7 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne, 8 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale, 9 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank, 10 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team, 11 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Lampre - NGC, 12 Leonardo Duque (Col) Cofidis Le Credit en Ligne, 13 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel, 14 Kenny Robert van Hummel (Ned) Skil-Shimano, 15 Albert Timmer (Ned) Skil-Shimano. Other: 44, N Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale) same time.
General classification: 1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 15hrs 07mins 49secs, 2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana at same time, 3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana at 0.19, 4 Andreas Kloden (Ger) Astana at 0.23, 5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana at 0.31, 6 Bradley Wiggins (Brit) Garmin Slipstream at 0.38, 7 Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa) Astana at 0.51, 8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia HTC at 0.52, 9 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin Slipstream at 1:06, 10 David Millar (Brit) Garmin Slipstream at 1:07. Other: 48, N Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale) at 3 mins 16 secs.
Sprinters: 1. Mark Cavendish (Brit) Columbia 96 pts, 2. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo 70, 3. Tyler Farrar (US) Garmin 54, 4. Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Milram 42, 5. Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bbox Bouygues 41.
King of the Mountains: 1. Jussi Veikkanen (Fin) Francaise des Jeux 9 pts, 2. Tony Martin (Ger) Columbia 6, 3. Anthony Geslin (Fra) Fancaise des Jeux 6, 4. Koen de Kort (Neth) Skil - Shimano 6, 5. Cyril Dessel (Fra) AG2R 5.
Youth standings: 1. Tony Martin (Ger) Columbia 15 hrs 08 mins 41 secs, 2. Roman Kreuziger (Cze Rep) Liquigas +39, 3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas ) +44, 4. Andy Schleck (Lux) Saxo Bank +49, 5. Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Liquigas ) +1:58, 10. Nicolas Roche (Ire) AG2R ) +2:24.
Armstrong, Cavendish to ride Tour of Ireland
THE ORGANISERS of the Tour of Ireland have confirmed that Mark Cavendish, the current green jersey wearer in the Tour de France, and seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong will take part in this year’s race, writes Shane Stokes.
Cavendish has already won two stages in the French event, adding to the four he won last year.
Armstrong is hoping to take over the yellow jersey in the Tour de France either today or tomorrow.
The Tour of Ireland will start with a 196km stage from Enniskerry to Waterford on August 21st, crossing Mount Leinster along the way.
It has, however, been shortened to a three-day race this year, down from five stages. The organisers said this was due to the economic climate, but that they hope it to return to a five-day race next year.
