Well, a day of routine leading up to an exciting finish full of argy-bargy, and a bit of podium waterworks as well!
Stage 5 of Le Tour saw the riders tootling their way from Epernay along picturesque roads and countryside towards their date with the line in Montargis some 187.5km removed. As an aside, I will be seriously glad when the Tour turns away from the abundant visual riches of the French North - Paul Sherwin's notebook is fast running out of descriptives for the views, and he's now repeating his travelogue specifics during the race, rather than on successive days: I'm warning you Paul - don't test me!
Anyway, back to racing, After a few goes at getting the breakaway mix right, Caisse d'Epargne's José Ivan Gutierrez got the OK after taking Jurgen van de Walle (Quick Step) and Julian El Fares (Cofidis) with him, and thus was the day's intrepid little group released. Makes you wonder what goes thru' these dudes minds when they hook up and speed off - what possible chance does a breakaway of 3 have on a stage like this? Still, it's all part of the sweeping drama that is Le Tour.
The breakaway got off to a real 'scalded cat' start and within 28 klicks had distanced the peloton to the tune of near-on 8 minutes - the bunch looked like they'd OD'ed on Restoril the night before. After that, the NoDoz kicked in (these crazy cycling kids and their wacky legal drug regimens) and they began the inevitable and inexorable reel-in of the miscreants.
For the second day in a row, Konstantin Siutsou of HTC-Columbia was getting plenty of face time on the tele, doing a power of work to bring back the breakaway, with Maxime Monfort and Bert Grabsch also throwing in, and later still joined by various riders from Lampre-Farnese Vini and Cervelo Test Team.
With 10km to go (trust me - it didn't go that quickly on TV), Tony Martin notched it up and the 3 leaders were doomed. At around the 6 km mark, Gutierrez decided to ditch his former partners in crime and attempt an ITT to the line, but that effort evaporated in a puff of exhaled air some 2 kms down the track.
With 4 km to travel, the sprint teams got rolling, and it turned into a real mash-up, with HTC-Columbia, Lampre-Farnese Vini and Garmin-Slipstream prominent in the fight to gain lead-out ascendancy. Coming under the red kite, there was still no super-organised team, but Garmin-Slipstream had the most numbers and it looked like Farrar was in with a go. But in the rolling and rocking final run to the line (featuring some nice shoulder work between Mark Renshaw and Thor Hushovd), it was Renshaw who dove into a gap left by one of the Garmin-Slipstream rider's peel-off, powered up with Mark Cavendish in tow, and then let him loose with 200 to go. Cav didn't dissapoint his teammates and recorded a going-away win in fine style, followed up by Gerald Ciolek (Milram) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), following on with another good showing from the previous day.
Good stuff overall and Cav was suitable elated, having a little blubber on the podium. Bernard Hinault was doing his stuff on the podium: not sure what 'Le Blaireau' would've thought of the Cav's sniffles, but I was half expecting him to launch a short right cross at Mark's prominent jawline. That's what this Tour needs - another protestor to clamber up on stage so Bernard can demonstrate his amiable nature!
Oh and Cav. - you need to start giving Renshaw big gobs of cash for his work mate!
Ride Safe!
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