Voeckler’s breakaway bags maiden stage victory

FRENCHMAN Thomas Voeckler dashed clear of a long-time six-man breakaway group in the final five kilometres to win the fifth stage of the Tour de France yesterday.

The Bouygues Telecom rider left rivals Anthony Geslin, Marcin Sapa, Mikhail Ignatiev, Yauheni Hutarovitch and Albert Timmer for dead late on to claim glory following a 196.5km jaunt from Le Cap d’Agde to Perpignan.

The slow-reacting peloton reeled in the other breakaway riders to ensure a mass sprint finish for the minor places, seven seconds after Voeckler had crossed the line.

Katusha’s Ignatiev was able to hold on for second and Team Columbia’s Mark Cavendish came third, enabling the green jersey to extend his lead in the sprinters’ points classification.

Ireland’s Nicholas Roche of the AG2R La Mondiale remains in 48th place.

There was no change to the leaders in the general classification, with yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara, second-placed Lance Armstrong and third-placed Alberto Contador safely among the peloton.

“I’ve been chasing that victory for such a long time,” said Voeckler, who clinched his maiden Tour stage success.

“I never believed I would do it having seen the gap close. It is only when I was 300 metres from the line that I started to believe.”

Voeckler, Geslin and Sapa had made the first break of the day and they were soon joined by Ignatiev, Hutarovitch and Timmer.

The sextet, who built up a lead of close to 10 minutes at one point, led the way for the rest of the stage but they were reeled in by a peloton that initially appeared fully in control of the situation.

Geslin and Sapa shared the first two intermediary sprints and led the breakaway group over two Category 4 climbs — the Col de Feuilla and the Cote de Treilles.

The chasers did likewise and then dabbed on the accelerator as they swept down the coast towards Perpignan with 74km left.

Cancellara even fronted the chase for some kilometres before strong crosswinds caused a split among the peloton.

Rabobank’s young Dutchman Robert Gesink was among those that fell into a second chasing group and was clearly struggling with an arm injury sustained in an early fall. He would eventually slip way off a peloton that otherwise linked up again and finished more than nine minutes after Voeckler.

With 40km remaining, the gap from the Astana-led first group to the front six was less than a minute and it seemed only a matter of time before they were caught. However, the leaders surprisingly maintained the cushion, with the peloton unable to decide between themselves who should orchestrate the chase.

Three mini-attacks among the front six were enough to dump Geslin and Sapa with 6km remaining but then Voeckler went again at a roundabout — and his surge lasted.

The Frenchman, who wore the yellow jersey for 10 days during the 2004 Tour, sped off and Ignatiev, Hutarovitch and Timmer could not react.

The home favourite had enough of a lead to slow down at the finale to take in the acclaim of the Catalan crowd, allowing the peloton to close to within seven seconds. Ignatiev held off Cavendish for the minor places, with the rest of field — including Cancellara — bunched up behind.