Jolly green giant Andre Greipel doubles up with win in Amiens
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Updated 08/07/2015 at 18:48 GMT
Germany's Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) extended his lead in the green jersey competition with a commanding victory in stage five at Amiens – his second in this year’s Tour de France, writes Felix Lowe.
Greipel
Image credit: Twitter
The Rostock Gorilla powered past his sprint rivals in the closing straight of the 189.5km stage from Arras to beat Slovakia's Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Britain's Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) after a wet and windy day in northern France.
Norwegian duo Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka) completed the top five - but no one could match 32-year-old Greipel, who stretched his lead in the green jersey competition to 32 points over Sagan.
“I’m happy to have won two stages already – it’s just a shame that I can’t stand on the podium with the whole team,” Greipel said. “They all did a fantastic job for me today – especially Tony Gallopin.”
Cavendish looked to be duelling with Kristoff for the win on the home straight but Greipel timed his acceleration to perfection to round both rivals and hold off a late surge by Sagan to secure an eighth career Tour stage win in some style.
Germany's Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) was present in team-mate Cavendish’s lead-out and, despite another sprint set-back for the Manxman, retained the yellow jersey he won after Tuesday’s audacious win over the cobbles to Cambrai.
Martin leads Britain’s Chris Froome (Team Sky) by 12 seconds and American Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) by 25 seconds after a day which saw Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) withdraw from the race after a nasty crash early in the stage.
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Team Sky riders Luke Rowe and Chris Froome of Britain cycle during the 189.5-km (117.7 miles) 5th stage of the 102nd Tour de France cycling race from Arras to Amiens, France, July 8, 201
Image credit: Reuters
HIGHLIGHTS
1-BOUHANNI CRASHES OUT
Already nursing a rib injury on entering the Tour, Bouhanni came down hard with three other Cofidis team-mates shortly after the start in rain-swept Arras.
Riding some three minutes up the road in a two-man break that formed after just two kilometres, Frenchman Nicolas Edet dropped back to help out his ailing Cofidis team-mates on hearing about the crash through his earpiece.
But it was too late: Bouhanni was taken to hospital with a suspected broken wrist and his unfortunate run in Grand Tours continues – the 24-year-old now having failed to finish five of six three-week races.
2-GREIPEL FLEXES HIS MUSCLES
Once discarded by Edet, de facto lone leader Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne-Seche Environnement) cut a lonely figure as he rode solo through numerous and buffeting winds in the grim Pas-de-Calais region of France.
Perichon held on to take maximum points at the intermediate sprint at Rancourt exactly 100km from the finish – but by a matter of seconds.
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Germany's Andre Greipel, wearing the best sprinter's green jersey, celebrates as he crosses the finish line, ahead of Great Britain's Mark Cavendish (L) at the end of the 189.5 km fifth stage of the 102nd edition of the Tour de France cycling race on July
Image credit: AFP
In his wake the battle for the green jersey hotted up as Greipel took a wide line after a nudge from Mark Renshaw (Etixx-QuickStep) to bag a maximum 17 points (for second place) ahead of fellow German John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin), Cavendish and Sagan.
It was a sign of things to come: Greipel is quickly – very quickly, it seems – emerging as the man to beat on the fast flat finishes in the 102nd edition of the Tour.
3-SPILTS AND SLIPPERY ROADS
The crash that ended Bouhanni’s Tour was followed by separate incidents that brought down Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) as adverse weather conditions coupled with lumpy roads took their toll on the weary riders.
New Zealander Jack Bauer (Cannondale-Garmin) quit the race after a third heavy fall since Utrecht while French youngster Bryan Coquard (Europcar) himself crashed twice in quick succession to knock the gas out of his attempts at being a factor in any of the sprints.
Chris Froome (Team Sky) had a scare when a motorbike lost control on a muddy verge while overtaking the peloton shortly before the pack split in two following the intermediate sprint.
Frequently changing winds made it difficult for the tailed-off riders to return to the fold, with the likes of Sky duo Richie Porte and Peter Kennaugh both eventually shipping over 14 minutes at Amiens.
A huge pile-up on a slippery straight whittled the leading peloton down even further, with luckless Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) one of the many riders caught out. Pinot managed to regain contact with the favourites – but the incident was further evidence of a highly stressful and energy-sapping day in the saddle.
MAN OF THE DAY
For years written off as a poor man’s Cavendish, Greipel is now starting to eclipse his former team-mate from those heady HTC days. With two wins in two attempts in bunch sprints, Greipel has single-handedly assured that German fans – now able to watch the Tour on national TV again – are not feeling Marcel Kittel’s absence one jot.
BIGGEST LOSER
Nacer Bouhanni was forced out of the race before having the chance to shine in a bunch sprint while even the fictional Jack Bauer wouldn’t have been able to withstand much more of the tarmac torment dealt out to his professional cycling namesake.
But perhaps the rider who will be most concerned as he lies in bed on Wednesday night is Britain’s Mark Cavendish. Four times in the past seven years we have seen Cav open up his Tour stage account with a victory in stage five – but once again, the 30-year-old looked well short of pace in the finale.
Beaten into fourth place on Sunday, Cavendish could only muster third place on Wednesday after what appeared to be another lead-out malfunction between him and Australian team-mate Mark Renshaw. Those new contract negotiations just got even tougher.
COMING UP
Severe winds from the English Channel are likely to pummel the peloton as they ride along the coast in the 191.5km stage six from Abbeville to Le Havre.
Three Cat.4 climbs could spark a battle for Joaquim Rodriguez's polka dot jersey while the finish falls on the kind of ramp that will have Sagan and Degenkolb salivating in their sleep.
THE STAGE IN A TWEET
With the race passing through the battlefields of the Somme and past numerous World War One memorials, Wednesday's stage five was always going to be about far more than sport.
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