Tour de France Stage Five

Stage Five:  Boom wins, Nibali triumphs, Contador struggles, Froome pulls out

The legendary stage of the north of France including some cobbled sections has seen the abandon of defending champion Chris Froome who has crashed on two occasions... before the pavés. On a rain soaked day of racing, Lars Boom took a valuable victory in Arenberg-Porte du Hainaut, Vincenzo Nibali retained and increased his lead in the overall ranking while Alberto Contador lost more time than most of the other GC contenders.

Stage 5 started in the presence of King Philippe of Belgium, former Prime Minister Yves Leterme and Eddy Merckx who flagged off the race and paid tribute to the victims of World War I in Ypres. Soon after the start proper, Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R) accelerated but it was an attack by Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) that generated the first breakaway. Those two riders were joined by Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Tony Martin (OPQS), Janier Acevedo (Garmin), Tony Gallopin (Lotto), Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Simon Clarke and Matt Hayman (Orica) to make it a nine-man front group. They eventually lost Acevedo due to a crash and Burghardt who was called back by his team to race as a helper for Tejay van Garderen and Greg van Avermaet.

Read more at www.letour.com/le-tour/2014