2015 Tour de France Stage 5 Results & Recap
Stage 5 of the 2015 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Greipel wins the sprint in Amiens
After three days of distinctly Classics-flavoured racing, some semblance of normality was restored to the Tour de France on stage 5, where André Greipel emerged victorious from a bunch sprint over Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quickstep).
It was still a windswept, crash-ridden stage from Arras to Amiens, with the peloton split in two and most of the main overall favourites in front. Tony Martin maintained his overall lead thanks to the inevitable bunch gallop, where Greipel outpaced all his rivals for to take a second stage win in this year’s Tour.
In the face of a strong headwind, going early was always going to be perilous and Kristoff was first to launch, followed by Arnaud Démare and Mark Cavendish, who had lost the wheel of lead-out man Mark Renshaw. Greipel timed it perfectly to come through for the win, with Peter Sagan on his wheel taking second ahead of Cavendish.
There may have been no cobbles, climbs, or finishes in the sea on today’s menu but rain and 30kph winds on the twisting route made sure no one would enjoy straightforward day.
As the peloton crossed from the Pas de Calais department into the Somme, where pitched battles were fought during World War I, there were a string of fallen riders: Only 10 kilometres had passed when Nacer Bouhanni’s Tour de France came to an abrupt end. The French rider, along with four Cofidis teammates, was part of a pile-up and was taken away in an ambulance having aggravated the injuries he sustained at the French nationals championships.
Jack Bauer (Cannondale-Garmin) was also in that crash and later withdrew from the race, too, as countless others hit the deck on treacherously slippery surfaces. The already battle-weary Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) was served another dose of bad luck but recovered from his late crash to rejoin and avoid further time losses. Even a police motorbike went down, failing to overtake the front group and toppling into a grass verge.
As the roads twisted and turned, the wind changed direction and just over halfway through the stage a 90-degree right-hander turned a headwind into a crosswind. It was at that moment that the peloton split in two, with the front group containing 100 or so riders, including all the big general classification and sprint contenders.
There was a lull in hostilities thereafter, with both groups happy enough to trudge towards Amiens, whereupon the race burst to life in the wind-up to the sprint, and the second group shuffled home 14:15 later.
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