Key moments

He’s a prodigious talent who described himself as “the little fat kid” when he first turned pro for T-Mobile in 2006. He has since become one of the fastest men on two wheels. He proved his value in stage five of the Tour de France by easily accounting for some of the best sprinters in the world in an exciting finale to the longest stage of the 2008 race. He had to account for Zabel, Freire, Hushovd, Cooke and Hunter but also needed to capture one of the riders who had been on the attack since the 11km mark. The French champion was part of a trio who cooperated right through to the 1,500m to go mark, then he attacked and was only passed by the sprint specialists in the final 75 meters.

The Progress Report
The official start of stage five was at 11.42am with 178 riders still in the race. Three seconds after Christian Prudhomme declared the beginning of the stage, he announced that the attacks had begun. The longest stage of the 95th Tour de France, 232km from Cholet to Chateauroux, was contested under blue skies with temperatures rising above 20 degrees. There were no climbs in the stage but three intermediate sprints were on the menu.

Soler Hernandez Quits
It was reported that Soler (BAR) fell in the neutral zone before the start. Already suffering injuries from a fall on the opening day, the Colombian who won the polka-dot jersey last year finally succumbed and retired from the race at the 11km mark of stage five.

Three French Form Escape Group
Racing was fast at the start of the stage and it wasn’t until the 11km mark that an escape group could get clear of the peloton. The move was instigated by the aggressor at the start of stage one, Mr Jegou of FDJ. He was chased down by the French champion Vogondy (AGR) and Brard (COF). At the 14km mark, they were 1’00” ahead. A large leading margin was established quickly: 3’25” at 20km; 5’45” at 33km… but then it began to plateau as the Gerolsteiner team started to take charge of the pacesetting duties. The stage was raced at a rapid pace early with the average speed for the first hour 45.8km/h. The urgency of the chase eased and the advantage blew out again: 7’20” at 50km; 8’15” at 52km but Gerolsteiner always ensured that the gain didn’t get too severe. At 60km the lead dropped to 7’40”. The average for the second hour was 42.2km/h. Valverde (GCE) and Gadret (A2R) were involved in a crash around the 85km mark, but both remounted their bikes quickly although Valverde did consult the race doctor after the incident.

Keeping The Escapees Honest…
The escape appeared doomed when it failed to get more of an advantage than 8’15” at the 52km mark. Gerolsteiner kept Jegou, Vogondy and Brard in check all day. The gain dropped ever so slowly and so too did the average speed. The fourth hour was raced at 38.3km/h even though the Credit Agricole team moved forward and joined in with the chasing duties with about 85km to go. With 65km to go, the advantage was just 3’00”. It slowly diminished thanks to the fatigue of the leaders and the efforts of Credit Agricole and Columbia riders who did the most work at the head of the peloton. With 20km to go, the deficit was 1’20”; 10km – 35” and it appeared to be a formality of a capture but it went right down to the wire thanks to an attack from Vogondy in the final 1,500m.

Setting Up The Sprint
Vogondy opened up a good gap on his escape companions and although the sprint teams were breathing down his neck, he pushed on only to be swallowed up in the final 75 meters of the stage and finish 21st behind the best sprinters in the Tour. Liquigas and Columbia dominated the head of the peloton in the final kilometers while Quickstep also got into the mix. The sprinters really began their surge well before Vogondy’s capture and Cavendish easily beat Freire and Zabel to the line to claim his first victory in the Tour de France.
Schumacher finished 26th in the stage and will keep the yellow jersey for stage six.

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To see the French champion racing for the line and holding off the sprinters in the dying meters prompted howls of delight at the finish from the fans but for Nicolas Vogondy the thing that excited him most was the encouragement he got before the finish.

“If you attack early in the day and embark on an adventure it’s always the intention to win. We missed out today, but by just 100 meters but those final meters are the most important. Nevertheless it was a good day for the team. It’s always interesting to spend a day in the lead. I went close to my home, it was very nice to be in the lead as we went through the villages and the people gave me so much encouragement it game me goosebumps.
“In the final, I still had some reservations but I knew what I intended to do. Still, when the sprinters’ teams start to launch – as was the case today – it’s really very difficult to hold them off.”

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With one stage win already, Thor Hushovd said he could relax a little. That’s a relative term because he and his team did a lot of work to bring back the escape and set up a sprint. Fourth is not a win but with the green jersey on his shoulders he has reason to be satisfied.

Again all the riders from my team have worked well. Of course, our goal is always to win the stage. That didn’t work out but the plan was also to take the green jersey. That happened so I’m very satisfied. Now comes the time to defend and I’ll try to keep it. I know this is not going to be simple because [Oscar] Freire is close to me, just like [Kim] Kirchen.
“The capture of the escapees was right on the limit. I know that Nicolas Vogondy is a very clever rider and he gave it everything but it just failed to workout for him. We were very afraid because we had to do a lot of work in the finale but at least we still had a sprint. Cavendish is a great ‘puncheur’, and he really showed that today. He is not unbeatable but he’s absolutely the New McEwen; we’ll see a lot of him winning races, that’s for sure.”

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In a stage that lasted almost five and a half hours despite a profile that featured not climbs, Stefan Schumacher admits that he was happy to have so long to enjoy his day in yellow. He’ll get another one tomorrow but is realistic about his hopes in the mountains.

“It was a great day for me and the team. It was a long stage but it gave me the time to enjoy the experience of wearing the yellow jersey. The team was confident that we could control the race from the beginning so it was something that I won’t forget.
“We will see how things go on the climb to Super Besse. I’ll have a few days in the lead and I also have a stage win. Everything now is a bonus but I will certainly not give up tomorrow. I’ll fight to keep the jersey. I know it will be very difficult with the mountain stage coming up but we’ll hit it hard and do everything possible.”

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At 23-years-old age, Mark Cavendish is one of the most prodigious sprinters in the world. In just his second Tour de France he insisted he would win a stage. The fast men only just caught up with the last of the day-long escapees but when they did, the rider from the Isle of Man took control.

“We’ve got such a strong team here and we’re consistently showing that. We had to come away with a stage win sooner or later and after the other day when we missed out on catching the escape, I wasn’t going to let them down. A lot of British fans think that cycling is only the Olympics and the Tour de France and they don’t get the chance to appreciate how much I’ve done in other races so at least I got to show them that I am the fastest guy in the world.
“It was really close it the end. There was a time when I thought we were going to catch the escape way too early and I had a chat with Thor and I said, ‘Maybe we’re going a bit too quickly.’ He told me, ‘No, they’re playing with us, they’re going to accelerate again.’
“It just goes to show the class of Thor and the experience that he has. We had Gerolsteiner, Credit Agricole and my Columbia team all going full gas just to bring the break down. We only just got them on the line. It just goes to show that anything can happen.
“I think the green jersey is a bit out of my reach. I didn’t come here with the aim of taking that; I just wanted to win stages. We’ve come so close so far – we’ve had a few top fives already – and our team had to stand on the top of the podium eventually and today we did it.”

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