2012 Tour de France: Stage 5: Rouen → Saint-Quentin (196.5km)

[Geraint Too Fast]

The only road stage of this years Tour with no categorized climbs.

Finale

A couple of corners in the penultimate kilometre and an uphill sprint (1km @ 2.8%) for the sprinters to tackle.

Contenders - Greipel, Cavendish, Sagan, Goss, Farrar, Renshaw, Veelers/Kittel, Petacchi, Friere, Van Hummel, Hutarovich, Haedo.
(The sprinters in italics were involved in today's crash, so may not be 100% for this stage)

 

[Steady]

......................

 

[Steady]

Goss and Greipel to fight for the 1st and 2nd place !!

 

[Fight.The.Power]

Great Job

Thanks for the new thread Geraint
I find it very useful throughout the race
A great job.

On another note, will the fact that Cav has lost weight help him out today ?

 

[Mellow Velo]

Thanks for the new thread Geraint
I find it very useful throughout the race
A great job.

On another note, will the fact that Cav has lost weight help him out today ?

+1
Given the material G had to work with!

Near 5 hours of total procession, followed by a massed pile up.
Winner is the last sprinter standing.

 

[l.Harm]

Copenhagen was like this (little harder maybe?) and there he won with those kilo's. Don't think this 2,4% in the last 1,5 km is difficult enough for the sprinters.

 

[jens_attacks]

alejet is getting his stage win tomorrow.
i hope for a boring stage crash-related.let all the favourites be healthy and in full flight mode on planche de belles filles and the craziness after

 

[Gloin22]

That corner with around 1km to go look sharp.... crashes sprint to mind inevitably...

 

[Lance Armstrong]

Uphill finish makes it more interesting. Goss can win here, maybe even Sagan. Greipel and Cav are still favorites though.

 

[SafeBet]

It's Petacchi time to shine.

 

[roundabout]

Question is, how wide are the roads in the last 3 km? Although, in this Tour people seem to crash anyway.

 

[jens_attacks]

how steep is it?3 % in the last km?

 

[markov111]

Does Veelers have a chance with this hill or would EBH be a better bet?

Or will EBH just be a work horse for cav?

2 for me are cav sagen

 

[Flamin]

Greipel to win again, Boeckmans top 5.

 

[Moviefan1203]

Cav for the win, but Sagan will be very close.

 

[Froome19]

Does Veelers have a chance with this hill or would EBH be a better bet?

Or will EBH just be a work horse for cav?

EbH seems to working on and off for Cav... on Stage 2 he was apparently told to go for the sprint if he could but he didnt have the positioning.

Tomorow Cav might try jumping again like on Monday so EbH may have a free reign or he may require EBH to shepherd him. Though he does have Eisel as well for that.

 

[Froome19]

Uphill finish makes it more interesting. Goss can win here, maybe even Sagan. Greipel and Cav are still favorites though.

Going at the speed they will be going, I doubt they will even notice the gradient.

 

[cycladianpirate]

Question is, how wide are the roads in the last 3 km? Although, in this Tour people seem to crash anyway.

In this tour? Crashes are the new black in the Tour these days. Hadn't you noticed?

 

[veganrob]

I like an angry Cav. And after today he just might be a bit pi$$ed off.

 

[Froome19]

In this tour? Crashes are the new black in the Tour these days. Hadn't you noticed?

In the Tour these days? Crashes are the new black in all GT's nowadays or did you not watch the Giro?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

In the Tour these days? Crashes are the new black in all GT's nowadays or did you not watch the Giro?

It's the product of UCI rankings, more conservative racing and backloaded routes. Everybody's still got a chance to be up there because the route hasn't weeded out any contenders (hey, it's still halfway through week 1, but when this phase of the race continues to the halfway point like in the 2011 Tour, you're asking for trouble), being up there in an anonymous lower-end-of-top-10 GC position is more important because of the UCI points, and the riders are scared to break out and scared to lose time.

So, as a result, you get a week of every team trying to keep their contenders up in the mix, usually with at least one or two domestiques, and it's just too crowded at the front for everybody to fit in, and it pushes the tempo up as everybody's constantly jostling for positions near the front, especially once you start adding sprinters and their trains to the mix late on.

A couple of days of this isn't too much of a problem, but when you start throwing tight corners and road furniture in the closing stages into the pot for good measure like that mad Giro stage with the hairpin bend at the end, crashes are an inevitable consequence.

 

[goggalor]

Going at the speed they will be going, I doubt they will even notice the gradient.

There's a >90 degree (going into a roundabout?) turn just before the flamme rouge though. Everyone will lose speed there, some more than others. My prediction: Fabu to attack out of the corner and win in the maillout jaune in front of Cav.

 

[Gubby Allen]

When will Kittel be up & running to contend in again - I'm guessing tomorrow & Friday are too early for him?

Is there any stage in this race Friere will be eyeing up for a win?

 

[cineteq]

I like an angry Cav. And after today he just might be a bit pi$$ed off.

There you go

 

[Fight.The.Power]

That's brilliant

Very funny