Tour de France Stage 5: One for the Sprinters

The Tour de France was quite different today, with a flat stage for the sprinters. There was a long solo breakaway, which had no chance of surviving, because the teams of the Sprinters will pull back the breakaway because they want their sprinters to win the stage.

Sprints are exciting because as the teams speed to the finish line, and crowd at the so-called pintch points, there is a very heightened risk of crashes. The risk is so great, the leaders and contenders of the Tour tend to stay well back, avoiding the melee. Do you find the sprints of the mountain stages more interesting?

Tour de France Stage 5 Summary

In Stage 5, there was a long solo breakaway from Baptiste Veistroffer, a French rider who is a bit of a breakaway specialist. So, it was not surprising that he rode away. The hope of the break, and Veistroffer, in this case, is to stay away and win the stage.

One of the interesting things about these types of stages in the Tour is that the Peloton slowly reels him (or them) in. It is an interesting phenomenon. The leader today was at the head of the race for more than four hours. Being in front for so long today, Veistroffer had to be self-conscious. The story of the stage, other than the heat, was the Peloton slowly reeling him in.

The Peloton caught him with 8.9 kilometers to go. With 3.3 kilometers there was a big crash. Because that crash happened to far out from the finish line, the riders involved in that crash all lost time. As the riders approached the finish line, lead out trains for the sprinters formed and we saw colored jerseys lining up in orderly fashion.

Olaf Kooij won the race in a sprint. Max Kanter was second. Tim Merlier was third. Jasper Phillipson and Biniam Grimay, noted sprinters, finished fifth and sixth. The crash disrupted the riders and in the overall classification Torstein Træen kept the yeloow jersey, though his lead narrowed. Shawn Quinn was 28 seconds back. Mathias Vacek was third. Pogochar and Vindegaard remained in fourth and fifth.

Sprinting Stages

There are several different stages in the Tour de France. First, the stage is flat. Second, there is almost always a breakaway, like today, and it is almost always caught. This is because of the third difference. There will be different, bigger riders who will win the stage. Each team generally has these sprinters, who are selected and built for these stages.

These stages tend to be similar. There is a high likelihood that the beak will be caught, and there will be a furious sprint for the finish line. The sprinters are going to mass near the front of the Peloton with about a mile to go. They will line up behind their teammates, who form an aerodynamic lead-out train for them. There are pinch points on the course, near the end, where these riders face a bottleneck. There is an increased risk of crashes at these choke points, and that makes these stages very exciting.

Everybody gets up for these sprinting stages. Some teams have some special equipment for these stages. The UAE Emirates team has special aerodynamic helmets to help them go fast in the final sprint. Other teams had aerodynamic helmets as well. Finally, you usually see great speeds in these races. That was the case today. What happens is that the rider(s) in the break ride as fast as they can to stay away. The teams of the biggest sprinters lead the peloton and push it to catch the break.

Hot

This stage of the tour was hot as well, with temperatures in the 90s. Again, the rest, recovery, and hydration of the riders were front and center. This is the warmest tour ever. At one point, the television broadcast cut again to Cristian Vandevelde, who not only had a thermometer, but as a former racer, he reminisced about some of the hot races he had raced in the past.

Conclusion

The tour has a huge mountain stage tomorrow. So the riders need to rest and recover after this stage. The stage tomorrow is from Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre, it is 186.2 kilometers long. We will see a different cast of characters tomorrow, with the leading contenders in the race taking center stage. We are likely to see Tadej Pogochar separate from some more.