Tour de France 2012: stage five – as it happened

Preamble: Good afternoon all and thanks for joining us. Please feel free to share you insights about cycling on the, um, off-chance that mine aren't sufficient. I have to admit I'm no William Fotheringham. Fortuantely, William Fotheringham is. And this is what he has to say about today's stage: No hills and heading east: if the wind is behind this could be a very, very fast stage. The likely scenario is that there will be an early escape, the sprinters' teams will take control, and bring the race together. Which sprinter's team that will be is the great unknown. It's unlikely to be Sky as they will want to save their strength for helping Wiggins later in the race. And by the way: Wednesday was a tough day for many riders, including Mark Cavendish who suffered a nasty crash. Here is William Fotheringham's stage four report complete with video footage of the accident that floored Cavendish. So what do we know about Rouen, today's starting point, and Saint Quentin, the finishing point, 196.5km down the road? Well, gather around the camp fire and hear this: Rouen's history is long and rich, though not especially auspicious for cyclists. In pre-Roman times it was the capital of a tribe known as Velocasse, which, with just a bit of mumbling, translates as "broken bike". Still, boats have been the preferred mode of transport in these parts down the ages, since Rouen's setting on the Seine enabled it to gain much wealth from maritime trading. In the Middle Ages, indeed, it was the loading point for most of the wine exported to Blighty, making Rouen folk among the first foreigners to twig that selling booze to Brits is a surefire money-spinner. Alas, interaction with the English has not always been so merry, since the city was seized by Henry V during the 100 Years' War and turned into England's capital in France and, famously, the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for listening to Judas Pirest, or something. Saint Quentin, meanwhile, was voted France's "most sporty town" in 2011 due to the prowess of its various teams and the excellence of its facilities, etc. Although it is believed that cut no ice with Johnny Cash. Top 10 on General Classification 1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan 20hr 04min 02sec 2 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling +07sec 3 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quickstep +07sec 4 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team +10sec 5 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling +11sec 6 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team +13sec 7 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team +17sec 8 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale +18sec 9 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Sharp +18sec 10 Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan +19sec 1.26pm: There'll be a lot of trundling along during today's stage, building up to a dramatic finish in which Bradley Wiggins, Cadel Evans and Michael Rogers are expected to feature prominently. At the moment, the insouciant peloton is trailing a four-men break-away group comprising Pablo Urtasun Perez, Jan Ghyslinck, Julien Simon and Mathieu Ladagnous. 1.33pm: Here's James Cavell to provide some perspective to today's proceedings. "Sad news today outside the race," he emails. "Belgian Willems - Accent rider Rob Goris died last night. Racing won't be that high on the agenda today I'm afraid." Too true, James. Here is a report from Cycling Times : Rob Goris of Team Accent Jobs-Willems Veranda's has died of a heart attack at age 30. He was visiting the Tour de France at the time, and suffered the fatal attack in his hotel in Rouen. Goris began his sports career as a professional ice hockey player. He started cycling in 2009 and then changed sports, riding for the Continental ranked Team Palmans-Cras in 2010. That year he won the Belgian national title for elites without a contract. In 2011 he joined Accent Jobs. He had appeared Wednesday night on the television show "Vive le Velo", along with his girlfriend, Katrien Van Looy, granddaughter of former cyclist Rik Van Looy. According to Het Laatste Nieuws, he "appeared perfectly healthy and told about his long endurance training last week." 1.35pm: A couple of readers have expressed their fury that "the media is covering up" stories of Garmin-Sharp riders dealing with US doping authorities. Oddly, this suggests that a couple of readers have not heard of a website called theguardian.com, which carries this long report . Here is the intro: A director of Garmin-Sharp has denied that any of the cycling team's riders have been banned for six months by the US Anti-Doping Agency as part of its investigation into the seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. 1.38pm: With 122km, the peloton is chugging along at a leisurely pace, passing a windmill here, and a copse there, clapping onlookers everywhere. It all makesw for a lovely spectacle. Speaking of which, here's an emailer called John. "Afraid to say I've developed a man crush on Fabian Cancellara for some reason - possibly because of his unbelievable time-trialling, possibly his common-sense comments on crashes after the stage yesterday, or possibly the way his hair flicks out from the sides of his cute yellow helmet - I'm not sure which. But a) your picture isn't helping and b) we're allowed man-crushes on cyclists these days right?" It's fine by me, John, but I'm no official. Who do you have to apply to for man-crush permission these days? 1.50pm: Everyone's still a-trundlin' on the road. Plenty of traffic on the email front too. "The main job of Wiggins, Evans and Rogers today will be to get through the stage as easy as possible, especially avoiding crashes that usually happens right and left in the first week," lectures Keld Ravn Kramer. "The sprinters to look for are riders like Britain's own Mark Cavendish, yesterday's winner Andre Greipel, Matt Goss, and Italian veteran Ale-Jet (Alessandro Petacchi). Furthermore, Peter Sagan and Edvald Boasson hagen, who are not out-and-out sprinters, will try to be up there as they are both in the contention for the green jersey." 1.57pm: I should point out that when I say that the peloton it trundling along, I mean that, so far, they have been going at an average speed of 28 mph. To put that in a context to which we can all relate, that is almost 1,000 times slower than the speed at which the International Space Station orbits Earth. 2.01pm: The four-man break-away group are five minutes ahead of the peloton. Just another 108km to hang on, lads. 2.09pm: The host TV company are interspersing coverage of the trundling with hard-hitting interviews conducted with selected riders before the race started. Here's the best bit from the one they've just shown with Yauheni Hutarovich. Fearless newshound: "How are you feeling after the crash yesterday?" Hutarovich: "I was lucky, it wasn't too serious for me." FN: How will today's stage go? H: Everyone will want to win. I think it will be quite fast. FN: Will your team hlep you? H: Yes. So now you know. 2.12pm: "Oi!" hollers Andrew Visser. "28kmph is about twice as fast as a recreational rider out for a Sunday 'turndle'." 2.18pm: Time to quit trundling: the riders have jacked up the tempo, now zipping along at 30mph. The break-away group's lead has been whittled down to 3.06 minutes. 2.23pm: The lads on Eurosport have been having an interesting discussion about war history, what with today's stage going by the Somme. Amid the talk of horror and loss, they make mention of the "Thankful Villages", the handful of villages in Britain that did not lose anyone during World War I. Here's a good article on that subject, if that's your thing: The mass slaughter of 1914-18 robbed the UK of a million lives, leaving no part of the country untouched. But there was a tiny handful of settlements where all those who served returned home... 2.28pm: The intermediate sprint is coming up in about 5km. "That will probably be a decent landmark for who's gonna be up there for the stage win," reckons Keld Ravn Cramer. "Those who fight for the points in the peloton - ie for spots 5 and down in the sprint, are probably those who will also fight it out for the stage win. A few sprinters will probably save themselves for the finish, but I expect most of the big names to take part." And just to make it more interesting, angry clouds overhead suggest rain is on the way ... 2.34pm: After the four-man breakaway group, Mark Cavendish comes next in the intermediate sprint, claiming the 11 points. Matthew Goss sprints in just behind him to take 10 points and the pair share a chummy grin as they resume trundling. Mark Renshaw and green jersey-wearer Peter Sagan were next. The first of the four leaders was Ladagnous, who took 20 points (followed by Urtasun, Simonand Ghyselinck). 2.40pm: And now we have synchronised slashing, apparently a new feature in the Tour which which almost the entire peloton stops at the same time for a "comfort break". Fortunately the surrounding fields contain no horses to frighten. 2.43pm: The rain has motly held off so far and there has been no wind (let's not dwell on the comfort break). Meanwhile, John Donnelly, who gets his kicks at Exter Wheelers, has some knowledge and he's happy to share it. "This 'soft pedaling' (see any year of the Tour of California) is an interesting phenomenon. The escape group set a slower pace which the peloton are happy to match because they are not yet interested in closing the gap. The plan being that both sets of riders will be fresher in the finale when the hammer starts to go down. It was quite a commonplace thing in stage racing, times gone by, particularly in Italian racing. The race organisers hate it as it puts the schedules out of whack but it can make sense for a tired peloton who basically agree beforehand that this one will be a sprint finish so why exhaust themselves getting there when they could sit back and enjoy the view." 2.46pm: The gap between the pack and the breakaway group came down to 2.45 minutes during the intermediate sprint but has now edged back up to over 3 minutes. 2.51pm: When you're down on your luck, luck gets down on you: poor old Sebastian Langeveld is currently 195th out of 195 in the general classification ... and has just got a flat tyre. 2.55pm: The break-away group are 3.10 minutes in front but not really pushing things, which is why the peloton aren't straining to keep or catch up. Sean Kelly on Eurosport reckons the peloton will not act until about 30km from the finish (we're currently at 70km) unless the gap grows to about six minutes. 3.05pm: "Is there anybody taking part in the annual Ring of Kerry charity cycle this Saturday?" asks Mark Deeley, before answering his own question. "The number of cyclists last year was roughly 5,500. This year they reckon the numbers will be around 10,000. We might be useless at football but maybe cycling is our next sport." 3.06pm: The boys on Eurosport say "there are losing the will to live" watching this, with the riders going so slow "they could buy an ice cream as they go". 3.12pm: The peloton are slowly gnawing at the escapees', who are now just 2.19 minutes in front. 3.25pm: Sorry for that lull there: I stopped for a "comfort break". And no, all of Team Guardian didn't join me. Anyway, you didn't miss much. In the Tour, I mean. Except that as I rejoined, I just heard the Eurosport making mention of "the lead guitarist in Thin Lizzy". How did they get on to that? Did Gary Moore win the Tour? Has Snowy White reinvented himself as a wheel manufracturer? Was it something to do with doping? "Re: 3:06pm - one rider did actually stop for an ice cream!" reveals Ali Kinnaird. "Back in 1954 Federico 'The Eagle of Toledo' Bahamontes went so fast up the Tourmalet he stopped at the top for an ice cream to wait for some other riders so he could descend with them!" 3.44pm: 36km to go and news is that the storm that had been battering the finish line in Saint Qunetin has cleared off. Perhaps that's what the peloton was waiting for? Because they've picked up the pace a little now and the leading group is only 2.15 ahead. 3.51pm: Things should start to get interesting any moment. Honest. With just less than 30km to go, the gap to the breakaway group is down to 1'29''. The guys at the front know that if they are going to be engulfed unless they make a perfectly-timed burst. while the guys in the peloton are trying to manoeuvre themselves into the best position for the expected mass sprint at the end. 3.54pm: Lotto-Belisol and Orica-GreenEdge riders have been heading the peloton for a while. BMC, Garmin-Sharp and Sky are all in close attendance, however. 3.56pm: The peloton are closing, the gap down to 1'12''. "I am flying to Kerry this evening to take part in the Ring of Kerry Charity event," discloses Ivan Scully to reassure Mark Dealy (3:05pm) that he will not be alone on Saturday. "I live in Reading but was born and grew up in Beaufort Village which is about 6miles west of Killarney (the start of the event). My brother Oran is also doing the event and he is driving down from Dublin tomorrow. Both of us used race for Killorglin Cycling Club (which is the first town after leaving the start)." 4.01pm: Julien Simon is eager to keep the peloton at bay and has decided to raise the apce at the front of the break-away group. Stuart O'Grady, meanwhile, has gone back to the front of the peloton, where he has been for most of the day. 4.04pm: A significant move in the peloton? For the first time, Sky have barged to the front. Clearly they are keen to put in place a shield for Wiggins in case there be a repeat of yesterday's crash as things begin to hot up with 18.5km to go. 4.10pm: Sky are stil at the front of the peloton, who are about to break the one minute mark to the leading group. Cavendish is well placed for the finale. 4.16pm: Thye break-away group reach the 10km milestone, aware that they are only 45 seconds in front. Sky remain to the fore in the peloton, with Evans' BMC alongside them and the Rabobank team. All the favourites well positioned, then. 4.21pm: A look online reveals that punters make Cavendish the overwhelming favourite to win this stage and absolutely no one thinks any of the break-away group have a chance of remaining in front with 5km to go. The peloton is just 30 seconds behind, and closing. Renshaw, Evans and Goss all look well placed to make a dash for it thanks to their teams' manoeuvering. 4.24pm: Baden Cooke, one of Goss' team-mates, has suffered a puncture. The lead is down to 21 seconds, with 3.2km to go. 4.25pm: Ouch! A Rabobank rider goes down in the middle of the peloton, taking out several others, seemingly including Sagan (images aren't clear), who had been well placed. 4.26pm: With 1.2km to go, Ghyslink makes a break for it ... and he got the jump on the three riders who've been accompanying so far, as well as the peloton who are jsut a couple of seconds back. 4.28pm: What a finish! Ladagnous made a valiant effort to claim victory, overhauling Ghyselink with touching distance of the finish. But the sprinters gobbled him up at the last. Goss seemed set to cross the line first but Greipel timed his dash perfectly to pip him into second. That's two stage triumphs in a row for Greipel. Cavendish was a few places back, seemingly unable to summon a big finish. 4.35pm: Griepel, manfully finding enough breath to give an interview within seconds of crossing the line, thanks his team (especially Greg Henderson) for getting him back into contention as he was right behind the crash that occured with 3km to go. He says the finish was "one of the hardest sprints I've ever done." 4.37pm: Here is the top ten classification for the stage: 1. A. Greipel - 196.5km in 4h41'28" 2. M. Goss 3. J. Haedo 4. M. Cavendish 5. S. Dumoulin 6. T. Veelers 7. O. Freire 8. A. Petacchi 9. S. Hinault 10. Y. Gene Overall classification after Stage 5: 1. F.Cancellara (24h45'32'') 2. B. Wiggins at 07'' 3. S.Chavanel 07" 4. T. Vvan Garderen 10'' 5. E.Boasson 11'' 6. D. Menchov 13'' 7. C. Evans 17'' 8. V. Nibali 18'' 9. R. Hesjedal 18" 10. A Kloden 19" At in the green jersey standings, Sagan still leads with 155 points, with Goss on 137 and Greipel closing on both of them, now on 132.