Tour de London

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Originally Posted By: coupwotcoup

You having a light ale tonight?

Not tonight, had a few at lunchtime...... could be talked into tomorrow though!

You going?

[Greg_Dyke]

Óscar Freire Gómez is a huge Racing Santander fan !!!

 

His nickname is Oscarito or The Cat

 

He has 3 career stage wins in Le Tour

[coupwotcoup]

Yes mate... HH straight from here..will get there around 7ish probably.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Ok, maybe see you there......

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

From Reuters:

 

Pozzato wins Tour fifth stage

Thu 12 Jul, 04:49 PM

 

AUTUN, France (Reuters) - Italian Filippo Pozzato of the Liquigas team won the fifth stage of the Tour de France, a 182.5-km ride from Chablis to Autun on Thursday.

 

Race favourite Alexander Vinokourov of the Astana team crashed some 25 km from the finish and crossed the line one minute and 21 seconds behind Pozzato, according to provisional results.

 

Swiss Fabian Cancellara of the CSC team retained the overall leader's yellow jersey.

 

Pozzato outsprinted Spaniard Oscar Freire of the Rabobank team for the stage win. Italian Daniele Benatti of the Lampre team came home third.

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Today's stage:

 

0 SEMUR-EN-AUXOIS

4.5 VILLENEUVE-SOUS-CHARIGNY

8 BRAUX (près)

10 Maison-de-Paille (CLAMEREY) (D.970-D.70)

10.5 Carrefour D.70-D.970

14 SAINT-THIBAULT

21.5 GISSEY-LE-VIEIL (près)

27.5 POUILLY-EN-AUXOIS (D.970-D.977)

30 Carrefour D.977-D.981

30.5 Porte de Bourgogne (CREANCEY) (D.981-D.977B)

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

FAVOURITE WATCH:

 

2nd - Andreas Kloeden (Astana)

12th - Alberto Contador (Discovery) @ 22" to Kloeden

14th - Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) @ 22"

15th - Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) @ 23"

22nd - Levi Leipheimer (Discovery) @ 27"

23rd - Denis Menchov (Rabobank) @ 27"

25th - Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Épargne) @ 30"

47th - Carlos Sastre (CSC) @ 43"

48th - Frank Schleck (CSC) @ 44"

81st - Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) @ 1'37

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Fabian Cancellara, whose attacking, positive style of riding has been one of the highlights of this Tour so far, leads the general standings by 33 seconds from Astana's Andreas Kloeden. Filippo Pozzato is third, two seconds further back.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Veteran Milram sprinter Erik Zabel is back in the green jersey, which he has won six times in this race. His fifth-place finish yesterday took him above Tom Boonen in the points classification.

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Sylvain Chavanel's long breakaway yesterday gave him a huge lead in the King of the Mountains classification, though the big points won't be handed out until we hit the Alps on Saturday.

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

No change in the young riders classification, where Vladimir Gusev still leads Dutchman Thomas Dekker by 6 seconds.

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

All eyes today, both in the peloton and the media, will be on Astana pair Andreas Kloeden and Alexandre Vinokourov. If they begin to look uncomfortable, then look out for the Caisse d'Epargne and Discovery Channel teams to raise the pace in the peloton.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

199km - The start is given on stage six of the Tour de France!

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

196km - Astana manager Marc Biver when questioned whether he still held hopes of his team winning the Tour: ""I don't think so," he told reporters. "Let's be realistic. Kloeden is not in the best conditions to ride. Nobody can say if they are in a position to finish the Tour, let alone the stage. It does not augur well. That's life, that's sport. There are moments of glory, moments of defeat. We've been struck by fate. Today we hope for better news."

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

196km - The attacks are coming early today! Britain's Bradley Wiggins is off after just two kilometres! He has already established a 20-second lead over the field.

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

193km - Wiggins has extended his lead to 1'30" already. His speed over short distances is serving him well here.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

185km - The gap is now up to 6'00" - That's quite remarkable and certainly not sustainable.... although he is an Urchin!

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

184km - All of which means that Bradley Wiggins is now in the virtual yellow jersey. he lies 105th in the GC, 5'40" off the pace, though is now 7'40" ahead in today's stage.

 

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

183km - MJilram's Andriy Grivko fancies a piece of the action too. He sets off in pursuit of Wiggins.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

179km - Cofidis' Geoffroy Lequatre was the only man not on the start line this morning. He fell yesterday, and was unable to continue.