2014 Tour de France Stage 5 Live Coverage
Welcome to our live coverage of Stage 5 of the 2014 Tour de France! Our live profile and commentary are below, followed by a preview of the technical aspects of the route.
Course Preview
Since the route was announced last October, this 155km stretch has probably been the most talked about stage. While shorter than the last cobbled stage to feature in the Tour, by quite some margin, in fact, it has managed to pack in quite a few extra cobbles.
There are 15.4 kilometres of the rough French pave? for the riders to contend with. The section that could cause the biggest problems is the first, Carrefour de l’Arbe. The five-star section can often be the deciding factor at Paris- Roubaix and could easily throw a general classification rider’s race into turmoil.
The penultimate pave? sector, Wandignies-Hamage a? Hornaing, is the longest of the entire race. This 3.7-kilometre section has a four-star rating and is an ideal place to launch an attack, especially if your rivals are looking uncomfortable.
When the race hit the cobbles in 2010, it wreaked havoc in the peloton. Fra?nk Schleck managed to make it over two sectors before the third – Sars-et-Rosie?res – ended his race. His brother Andy fared better, using the wheel of Roubaix master Fabian Cancellara. Team-mates will be hugely important on this stage, if the GC boys hope to make it through unscathed.
In terms of the stage victory, Omega Pharma- Quick Step will be one of the favourites, with reigning Paris-Roubaix champion Niki Terpstra in their midst. They will also have to shepherd their GC contender Micha? Kwiatkowski.\n
Get our full coverage of the Tour de France and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
