Cycling: André Greipel won the fifth stage of this year's Tour de France. In an inimitable finish, he relegated Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) to their places. For Greipel it is the 8th stage win in the Tour, the second in 2015. Tony Martin worked hard for Mark Cavendish, but was able to defend the yellow with confidence.
Today's stage from Arras to Amiens Métropole was nervous again. Maybe more nervous than many had thought beforehand, because on paper today's route offered few difficulties with few technical passages and no significant climbs. A big factor was again the unpredictable weather. It rained again and again, sometimes heavily, and the wind blew from a different direction. The road was often greasy and as a result there were repeated falls, sometimes involving several dozen drivers. In contrast to the third stage after Huy, the falls today were mostly minor. Only Nacer Bouhanni got it a little harder - the Cofidis professional had to give up the race.
Yesterday's unlucky man, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), also ended up on the road several times. To date, it is certainly not the tour for the Frenchman, who was previously considered a secret favorite. The other favourites, Froome, Nibali, Quintana and Contador avoided any falls and were well protected by their teammates at all times. When the peloton finally approached the slightly uphill finish in Amiens at high speed, things started to move at the front.
The teams from Etixx-QuickStep, where Tony Martin in the yellow jersey worked sacrificially for Mark Cavendish, Tinkoff-Saxo and Giant-Alpecin then took command with almost 10km to go. This was followed by constant stalking, many speed increases and many counterattacks. André Greipel usually lurked a little further back in the group with his three Lotto Soudal teammates.
The sprint was surprisingly chaotic: Cavendish actually had the best position, but was suddenly blocked by Kristoff and Sagan, Greipel lost his helper's rear wheel and seemed to be stuck. With the courage of desperation, the Rostocker then swerved wide and actually managed to pass the puzzled and visibly disappointed Peter Sagan. Shortly after the end of the stage, Greipel described the situation before the sprint as follows: “Actually, 300m from the finish, I thought it was over. Then the gap opened up and I pulled through. My team did a great job, big thanks to everyone.”
Tony Martin finished in the first group and was able to confidently defend his lead in the overall standings, although he would have liked to have helped his team-mate win: "It's a pity that it wasn't enough for Cav in the end. It was going well for me personally, but today as a team we set ourselves the goal of winning the stage for Mark,” said the 30-year-old. We are excited to see how much longer he will be able to keep the Maillot Jaune.
Video summary of stage 5
Final result stage 5 Tour de France 2015
[easy table th=“0″]1.,André Greipel,Lotto-Soudal,04:39:00
2.,Peter Sagan,Tinkoff Saxo,
3.,Mark Cavendish,Etixx-QuickStep,
4.,Alexander Kristoff,Katusha,
5th, Edvald Boasson Hagen, MTN-Qhubeka,
6.,John Degenkolb,Giant Alpecin,
7. Arnaud Demare, FDJ,
8th, Bryan Coquard, Europcar,
9th, Davide Cimolai, Lampre Merida,
10.,Greg Van Avermaet,BMC,
[/easy table]
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