Sometimes the breakaway does survive to the finish at the Tour de France and rewards a long-suffering cyclist with victory.
That's what happened on the 122-mile race from Le Cap d'Agde to Perpignan for Stage 5 on Wednesday when France's Thomas Voeckler once again raised himself from virtual obscurity to win his first-ever stage of the Tour de France.
Fabian Cancellara held onto the yellow jersey for another day, as he's led the race since Stage 1. Lance Armstrong still trails by a fraction of a second.
If you remember Voeckler's name, it's because the improbable hero of France wore the yellow jersey for 10 days back in 2004, beating the odds daily to hold onto the yellow jersey.
2004
That year, he gained the overall race lead in a breakaway with four other riders during, once again, Stage 5. He didn't win that stage, but he gained enough time to take the yellow jersey from Lance Armstrong.
Although not suited to racing in the mountains, Voeckler protected the yellow jersey throughout the Pyrenees that year and only relinquished it back to Armstrong in the Alps. He was the toast of France at the time, but he's had little to show in subsequent Tour de France races.
Lucky Stage 5
Voeckler, 30, probably remembered this was the lucky Stage 5 for him when he broke from the peloton with five other cyclists just 12 miles into the race. The breakaway gained nearly 9 minutes before the peloton started to reel them in.
But the wind played havoc with the peloton again, as overall leader Cancellara drew apart the peloton. It mostly came back together as the teams like Garmin, Cervelo and Columbia came to the front for their sprinters. They whittled down the margin to the breakaway to about 1 minute with 10 miles to go.
As they neared Perpignan, Anthony Geslin (FdJ) and Marcin Sapa (Lampre) got dropped from the break, leaving Voeckler (BBox), Yauheni Hutarovich (FdJ), Mikhael Ignatiev (Katusha) and Albert Timmer (Skil) in front.
Final attack
With less than 3 miles to go, Voeckler took off while the remaining three appeared to argue about who was going to chase him down. Voeckler kept putting time on the three until Timmer started chasing, but it was too late.
Voeckler crossed the finish line acknowledging the crowd and shaking his head as in disbelief at his good luck.
Stage 6
The Tour de France enters Spain on Thursday, covering 123 miles from Gerone to Barcelona. There are six 3- and 4-category climbs along the route.
On Friday, the peloton enters the mountains for first serious climbs of this year's Tour.
Overall Top 10
1. Fabian Cancellara, Saxo Bank
2. Lance Armstrong, Astana – 00:00
3. Alberto Contador, Astana – 00:19 behind
4. Andreas Kloden, Astana – 00:23 behind
5. Levi Leipheimer, Astana – 00:31 behind
6. Bradley Wiggins, Garmin – 00:38 behind
7. Haimar Zubeldia, Astana – 00:51 behind
8. Tony Martin, Columbia – 00:52 behind
9. David Zabriskie, Garmin – 01:06 behind
10. David Millar, Garmin – 01:07 behind
Recent Comments