2009 Tour de France: Stage 5 Results – Voeckler Wins, Overall Unchanged

Almost from the start, a six-rider group broke away and maintained a gap from the peloton for 186km. Between 10k and 6k to the finish, the lead pack started challenging each other, but every effort was matched and they remained together.

After nearly 4-1/2 hours of racing, BBox Bouygues rider Thomas Voeckler jumped like a rabbit with about 2km to go and left the lead pack like a sack of bricks.  For the first time the others hesitated, which gave Voeckler all the space he needed to hold on the for win.

Thanks to strong efforts by Astana and Saxo Bank riders, with Fabian Cancellara right at the front, the peloton caught and swallowed the rest of the leaders at about 1000m from the finish, coming across the line together, just 7 seconds behind Voeckler.  That gave everyone but Voeckler on the front and a few stragglers on the rear the same time, keeping the overall standings the same.

Hit ‘more’ for today’s Top 10 and Overall Top 10 rankings, plus a few pics…

You can see how close the peloton came to catching Voeckler.  Riders sprinted for top spots and points, and Mark Cavendish crossed the line in third for the day to keep the Green points jersey lead.  The peloton effectively kept him from another stage win today by not working too hard to catch the lead group, which was no threat to the overall standings.

Just after crossing the line, Voeckler waits for his BBox teammates to share the celebration.

Cancellara remained in Yellow after Stage 5.

2009 TOUR de FRANCE STAGE 5 TOP 10:

2009 TOUR de FRANCE GENERAL CLASSIFICATION TOP 10 AFTER STAGE 5