Tour de France Stage 5

1.Tour de France Stage 5
12:21 CEST

Hello and welcome back to the 96th Tour de France. After 196.5 km today, we expect yet another sprint finish.
2.
12:43 CEST

Today’s stage takes us from Le Cap d’Agde on the Mediterranean coast inland, west and south. We come back to the coast at km 133, and follow it down for 40 km. We can really expect some wind along here. Then the route turns inland, makes a u-turn and heads north to the finish in Perpignan.
3.
12:48 CEST

Cyclingnews’ Hedwig Kröner is at the start today, and tells us there are lots and lots of people there. It is great to have so many fans there, but there is just one little problem – the traffic. Ok, so it wasn’t such a little problem. She says the Cyclingnews car got caught in a traffic jam at a roundabout and had to wait some 15 minutes.
4.
12:52 CEST

Who else was caught in that traffic back up? The Garmin-Slipstream team bus, for one. They were so late, the bus didn’t even go the team bus parking area, but pulled up right to the sign-in podium to let the guys out. They only made it about 10 minutes before the race was to start.
5.
12:56 CEST

Kröner talked to Quick Step’s Sylvain Chavanel about the weather and the stage. It is already 27° Celsius at the start with lots of wind. They expect to have backwind virtually the whole way, until they make that little u-turn near the end. Then they will have headwind, what fun.

Chavanel said that of course his team will be riding for sprinter Tom Boonen. He noted that they really can’t expect Columbia to do all of the lead work, so they will probably help out. He also expected the wind to break the peloton up into numerous groups again today.

6.
13:00 CEST

The peloton has met its first challenge of the day: a closed railroad crossing. They sat and waited some three minutes.

Situation:
Anthony Geslin (FdJ), Marcin Sapa (Lampre), Thomas Voeckler (Bbox), Yauheni Hutarovich (FdJ), Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) and Albert Timmer (Skil-Shimano)
Cancellara group at 1:30
Menchov, Pereiro, Wiggins group at 1:40
Gesink group at 2:30