Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Thursday, July 4, 2024

Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary | Our YouTube page
2023 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it. - W. C. Fields

---

Bill & Carol McGann's book The Story of the Tour de France, Vol 1: 1903 - 1975 is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Current racing:

• June 29 - July 21: Tour de France

Upcoming racing:

• July 27 - August 11: Olympic cycling

Latest completed racing:

• June 9 - 26: Many National Championships
• June 15 - 18: La Route d'Occitanie Cancelled because security forces busy with Olympics
• June 9 - 16: Tour de Suisse
• June 12 - 16: Baloise Belgium Tour
• June 2 - 9: Critérium du Dauphiné
• June 5 - 9: ZLM Tour
• June 7: GP Canton Aargau
• June 2: Brussels Cycling Classic

---

Tour de France stage 5 reports

We posted the race organizer's report with the results.

Here's the Tour report from stage 5 winner Mark Cavendish's Team Astana Qazaqstan:

Astana Qazaqstan Team rider Mark Cavendish secured a historic victory by winning his record 35th stage of the Tour de France.

“It’s hard to fully grasp this success, but we worked towards it, and as a team, we did everything possible to make it happen. We have an incredible team, and I have amazing teammates. Throughout not just this Tour de France but all this time, I felt immense support from the entire team, and today we have the moment to celebrate this success together. I am very happy to be part of Astana Qazaqstan Team, where I found friends and, essentially, an incredible family. Today, the team was magnificent, everything was done perfectly, and I managed to win. I believed in success, but the main thing is that the team believed in success, we were on the same wavelength and had a common goal. I received maximum support, and we purposefully worked towards the goal we achieved today”, – said Mark Cavendish.

Mark Cavendish gets a clean win for his 35th TDF stage victory. ASO photo

“For our team, this is a great success, a historic achievement that will remain in cycling forever. Few believed that we would succeed, that Mark’s arrival in Astana Qazaqstan Team would change history, but we believed and did everything to make today’s victory happen. We were close to this last year, but fate had other plans. I believe that real champions should not end their careers after a fall and injury, and I am happy that Mark decided to do another season in the end. This year, we were able to prepare better, create all the necessary conditions to approach the Tour de France as best as possible. The whole team believed in success, and everyone contributed a bit of their effort so that today we could celebrate success. I congratulate the entire Astana project on this historic achievement. But we are not going to stop; only five stages have passed, and most of the race is still ahead. We are ready, and we will continue to fight in each subsequent stage”, – said Alexandr Vinokurov, General Manager of Astana Qazaqstan Team.

Here’s the Tour report from Jonas Vingegaard's Team Visma | Lease a Bike:

The sprint stage presented no problems for Team Visma | Lease a Bike. Team leader Jonas Vingegaard reached the finish line safely surrounded by his teammates. The stage win in Saint Vulbas was for Mark Cavendish.

After the start signal in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, the peloton set off for 177 almost flat kilometres. After a hesitant opening hour, Clément Russo and Mattéo Vercher formed the breakaway. Far from the finish line, the French duo was reeled in by the peloton, which was preparing for another mass sprint. With twenty kilometres to go, Christophe Laporte hit the asphalt, but the European champion was able to continue his way immediately. In the sprint, Cavendish eventually proved the fastest. He took a record-breaking 35th stage victory in the Tour de France.

The classification jersey owners at the start of stage five.

Sports director Grischa Niermann saw his riders get through the stage without any problems. "All in all, it was a quiet day for us. A sprint stage always gets more hectic and nervous towards the final. There was Christophe's small crash, but fortunately he was able to continue his way. Our biggest goal after that was to get Jonas safely to the finish line. That worked out well."

Wout van Aert did not battle for the day's victory. He expressed his admiration for his British colleague after the stage. "I had always thought it was possible that Mark would succeed in setting the record. The sprint stages in the Tour these days have a quiet run-up followed by a fast final. He still has that in his legs. With all his experience, he knows better than anyone how to position himself in the peloton and he showed that again today. I have a lot of respect for him. I won nine Tour stages in my career, so I can certainly imagine how difficult it is to win 35 stages. He is a great champion."

Here's the Tour report from Team dsm-firmenich PostNL:

Strong teamwork and building on the result from the opening sprint, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL sprinted to fifth place on stage five at the Tour de France on Wednesday afternoon with Fabio Jakobsen.

Head-on look at the stage five sprint. Sirotti photo

With a challenging day in the mountains behind them, the Tour de France peloton took on some flatter terrain once more with a 177 kilometre long route from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint Vulbas awaiting them on day five of the competition. The category four climb of Côte de Lhuis would be the main obstacle of the day but with it cresting at more than 30 kilometres to go, a sprint finale was most likely. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL once again set out their stall of riding well as a unit and conserving energy, before looking to set up fast finisher Fabio Jakobsen for the sprint.

The two-rider breakaway was always controlled by the peloton and they were reeled back in with around 30 kilometres to go, where the team’s climbing group of Romain Bardet, Warren Barguil, Oscar Onley and Frank van den Broek did a good job of maintaining the team’s position at the head of the race on narrow and wet roads. Seeing the sprint group through the five kilometre mark, Jakobsen then followed John Degenkolb, Nils Eekhoff and Bram Welten who guided him through what was a very hectic and chaotic finale, where the clichéd “washing machine effect” was on full display. Dropped off with around 500 metres to go, Jakobsen kept his cool and used his experience, spotting a gap to launch his sprint on the right side of the road when things opened up. Producing a good kick and finishing fast, coming past several other riders, it was enough for him to take a strong fifth place at the line.

Speaking after the stage a pleased Jakobsen expressed: “We worked really well as a team today, everyone was involved. The four climbers we have here all did a good job and positioned our sprint group really well going into the last five kilometres and kept us safe. Then I just followed John, Nils and Bram until the last 500 metres. I launched my sprint on the inside and I think it was okay, but not good enough to win. Cavendish went on the left and had a bit of a head start but he held the speed really well. It’s nice to see him get the record. I think we can take more confidence from today again and build on that for the next sprints.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “The guys did a really good job. They were all totally behind the plan and we were really in position from a long way out, which was good because of the rain and narrow roads. The guys then brought Fabio into the bubble to go for it and he made a nice sprint; showing some skill and speed in the final 300 metres to take fifth place. We aim to keep this progression up in the next sprints and keep working well together like this.”

And here's the report from young rider classification leader Remco Evenepoel's Team Soudal Quick-Step:

Remco Evenepoel spent a relatively quiet day in the Tour de France white jersey, which he is wearing since the end of the second stage, as the peloton embarked on a 177.2km journey from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint Vulbas. A breakaway formed late into the day, and with only two riders being part of it, the peloton had no problems reeling it in.

Remco Evenepoel will start stage six in white. Sirotti photo

Rain made things a bit more complicated in the final hour of racing, forcing the teams to slow down before picking up the pace again inside the last ten kilometers, when the lead-out trains began making their presence felt at the front. As expected, stage five came down to a bunch sprint, won by Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan), who wrote history on the roads of the Tour de France with his 35th victory at the race. Remco finished safely in the peloton and kept the lead in the white jersey classification, where he currently has a 25-second buffer.

“It was a bit stressful in the last 40 kilometers when it started to rain, but we managed things well and we can be content with our day, as it was pretty straightforward. We hope things will continue like this for us in the next stages. I also want to congratulate Mark on his record, we were teammates for a couple of years and it’s pretty special to witness his achievement from the bunch”, Evenepoel said after the stage.

Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary