ProTourBlog

Stage 5 recap:

It has a very interesting day, I have to say. We saw a big name, Robert Gesink going down hard and finishing the stage9 minutes down, and now we know that the young climbing sensation of Rabobank didn’t start stage 6 because of a broken wrist. I’m sorry for him, I was really looking forward to see him attack in the mountains. This Tour is becoming Rabobank’s nightmare: the loss of Gesink, Menchov’s awful performances and the unsuccessful Freire…

Anyway, we also saw to espacees reaching the finish line ahead of the peloton. Obviously, nobody thought they wouldn’t be reeled in, but with 10 km remaining, the breakaway’s lead was still around a minute, were one could already see that they won’t get caught. Columbia did everything they could, Garmin helped them as well, but no other teams were intersted in chasing them down. Bad-bad Cervelo, Rabobank, Milram, Liquigas, etc…

Frenchman Voeckler made his mode at the right moment, when the other most dangerous guy of the break, Ignatiev was boxed in by the Belarus champ and the Skil-Shimano guy. Titi Voeckler won the stage, Ignatiev finished just meter ahead of Cavendish, who won the bunch sprint for the third place. He really is going for that green jersey!

Stage 6 preview:

A fairly long, 181,5km ride from Gérone (aka Girona) to Barcelona, with five steep, 3rd and 4th cat. hills to climb. The end of the stage will be a bit different than the ones we’ve seen so far, as a bit of climbing will be needed.

I’m not saying Columbia wouldn’t be able to manage this one for Cav again, but as the graphics show, it would suit riders like world champion Ballan, Boonen, Wegmann, Pereiro, F. Schleck, Hincapie, etc. better. It would be nice to see Columbia letting George go for it if Mark wouldn’t be able to do it.

I can’t tell who’s going to win this