2017 Tour de France Stage 5 Results & Recap

Stage 5 of the 2017 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.

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Race Recap

Fabio Aru claims Stage 5 victory at Tour de France, Froome moves into yellow

by Evan Hartig

Italian national champion Fabio Aru (Astana) took the summit finish at La Planche des Belles Filles on Stage 5 of the Tour de France Wednesday, attacking out of a select group of 15 on the upper slopes of the six-kilometer ascent.

Irishman Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) was second across the line, with defending champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) 20 seconds back from Aru in third, vaulting the three-time winner into yellow.

“I think I’m realising slowly what I’ve done today,” Aru said. “But of course I am extremely happy to win a stage of the Tour de France, that was missing in my career. This is fantastic after the months of injury I’ve had and the difficult time that my team has had recently.”

Regardless of Tuesday’s discord, which saw world champion Peter Sagan ejected from the race and Mark Cavendish forced to abandon with a fractured shoulder, the Tour de France continued on, with Stage 5 traveling from Vittel to the steep summit of La Planche des Belles Filles.

In a race with only three summit finishes, it was to be the first crucial stage for the GC men, with two categorized climbs on the profile — first, the category four Côte d’Esmoulières, at just over 100 kilometers in, and second, the category 1 La Planche des Belles Filles, a climb that was last seen in the 2014 Tour with Italian Vincenzo Nibali taking the win.

The day’s breakaway rolled early as per usual, within the first five kilometers of the race, consisting of eight riders: Jan Bakelants (Ag2r La Mondiale), Mickael Delage (FDJ), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data), Dylan van Baarle (Cannonale-Drapac), Pierre-Luc Perichon (Fortuneo-Oscaro), Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie), Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal).

Despite their efforts, their margin only grew to a maximum of 3:30 on the 160 kilometer stage.

Bakelants was the first to the top of the Cote d’Esmoulieres, taking maximum KOM points. The breakaway was still on a short leash, with BMC Racing vigilant at the front of the peloton, their men controlling the chase. Richie Porte’s team would lead the peloton all the way into the final climb of the day.

Onto the lower slopes of La Planche des Belles Filles, Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) was first to attempt to distance himself from his breakaway companions. Compatriot Jan Bakelants covered his move, and the pair rode on together, but it became quickly apparent that this final effort would be in vain.

“I wanted to make the breakaway today because if there was a chance to win a stage from a breakaway this week, it was today,” Gilbert said. “We never had a big lead but we kept believing we could reverse the situation. They were well organized behind us. I went again with Jan Bakelants but unfortunately it wasn’t enough for contesting the stage victory. I enjoyed the race a lot but the climb was very hard. It looked much easier when I watched it on TV.”

Young French phenom Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) was the first rider to attack out of the peloton at the base of the climb, quickly bridging to the two riders still hanging onto a marginal gap out front. Their time in front of the quickly approaching field was limited, however, with Team Sky taking the reins from BMC.

The vicious pace set by Sky lieutenants Michal Kwiatkowski, Mikel Nieve, and Sergio Henao quickly reeled in the three men out front, and with four kilometers remaining, the race was one for the GC men. The pace quickly created a select group, now midway up the final ascent of the day. Trek-Segafredo GC hope Bauke Mollema and Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) were the next to crack.

With 2.5 kilometers remaining, Aru challenged the composed steadiness of the Sky train with a vicious solo attempt. His margin quickly grew, with no immediate response from Sky’s Nieve at the head of the chase.

Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) was the next to make a move. The yellow jersey of Geraint Thomas responded, and Yates was brought back. Froome was the next to attack, but it was too little, too late, as Aru continued to distance his former companions.

Froome’s acceleration wasn’t in vain, with Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) succumbing to the Englishman’s pace. Only Martin, Porte, and Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) could stay with Froome.

“It’s clear that Aru was the strongest,” Bardet said. “He’s the only one who was able to attack and make a little gap. He surprised us by attacking from far but I’m happy because I managed to reply to Froome’s attack. I usually have complicated starts to the Tour, so this is a morale booster. It’s a good warm-up session. We were a few at the same level.”

Aru rose from the saddle and seemed to perpetually accelerate up the climb, even as the gradient rose over 20%. He crossed the line with 16 seconds over Martin, who put in an impressive final dig to overcome Froome, four seconds back.

Contador would lose 26 seconds to Aru and 10 seconds to Froome, due to Froome’s time bonus, while Quintana lost 34 seconds to Aru and 38 seconds to Froome.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be back in yellow,” Froome said. “It’s what I’ve worked all season for. The team did a great job, looking after me all day. Up to now, I think the team has been fantastic, and it’s a great reward to be in yellow. The race is still wide open, it’s very close. Fabio Aru did a great ride today, he’s proven to be quite a contender. It’s still a very close race at this point.”

“I think if anything we made little mistake watching each other on that flat part while Aru was gaining time up front. Otherwise we rode a good stage. We can be pretty happy, we are sitting first and second on GC. We still have options, and that could come in handy in the days ahead.”

Porte finished right behind Froome, and now sits fifth overall, 39 seconds down.

“I can’t say any more for my team,” Porte said. “They were incredible today, [they] took it up. I think we kind of took it to them but in the final there Aru slipped away. I’m still happy with my ride for the first mountain stage. Kind of expect a little more but it’s a long way to go.”

With his performance, Aru moved into the polka-dot jersey of King of the Mountains. Arnaud Démare (FDJ) retained his green jersey of points leader, while Yates was presented with the white jersey of best young rider — the same jersey his twin brother Adam wore last July. Gilbert received the day’s combativity award.

Link: https://cyclingtips.com/2017/07/fabio-aru-claims-stage-5-victory-tour-de-france-froome-moves-yellow/\n______________________________________________________

‘It is sad for the Tour de France’ – Riders and managers react to Peter Sagan’s expulsion

by CyclingTips

VITTEL, France (CT) – Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) is out of the Tour de France for what the race jury deemed an “irregular sprint” on stage 4. His team lodged an appeal overnight but that was unsuccessful and the world champion will sit out the rest of the race.

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) is out of the race too, scans showing last night that the Manxman had fractured his shoulder blade in the crash that resulted when he and Sagan collided. As a result, the Tour continues today without two of its biggest stars.

In the hour immediately after the crash, social media was abuzz with discussion about the incident. Some said the crash had just been the result of a messy sprint and that Sagan wasn’t to blame. Other called for Sagan’s disqualification, claiming the Slovakian had acted recklessly, dangerously, in forcing Cavendish into the barriers.\nBut in the hours after Sagan’s expulsion was confirmed, the mood appeared to shift. Riders, fans and the media expressed their shock at the decision. The concensus seemed to be that a relegation from second place and loss of points was a fair result but expulsion from the race was not.

Part of the reason for that shift in opinion was the availability of slow-motion video such as the one below, which enabled a much closer look at the timing of the crash. As can be seen on close watching, Sagan’s elbow appears not to have made contact with Cavendish. Furthermore, the movement may have been a reaction to the Briton’s brake hood snagging under Sagan’s forearm.

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‘It is sad for the Tour de France’ – Riders and managers react to Peter Sagan’s expulsion

by CyclingTips

July 6, 2017

VITTEL, France (CT) – Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) is out of the Tour de France for what the race jury deemed an “irregular sprint” on stage 4. His team lodged an appeal overnight but that was unsuccessful and the world champion will sit out the rest of the race.

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) is out of the race too, scans showing last night that the Manxman had fractured his shoulder blade in the crash that resulted when he and Sagan collided. As a result, the Tour continues today without two of its biggest stars.

In the hour immediately after the crash, social media was abuzz with discussion about the incident. Some said the crash had just been the result of a messy sprint and that Sagan wasn’t to blame. Other called for Sagan’s disqualification, claiming the Slovakian had acted recklessly, dangerously, in forcing Cavendish into the barriers.

But in the hours after Sagan’s expulsion was confirmed, the mood appeared to shift. Riders, fans and the media expressed their shock at the decision. The concensus seemed to be that a relegation from second place and loss of points was a fair result but expulsion from the race was not.

Part of the reason for that shift in opinion was the availability of slow-motion video such as the one below, which enabled a much closer look at the timing of the crash. As can be seen on close watching, Sagan’s elbow appears not to have made contact with Cavendish. Furthermore, the movement may have been a reaction to the Briton’s brake hood snagging under Sagan’s forearm.

Current and former riders gave their reactions, likely based on this or similar clips.

The overhead video suggests that Sagan’s move to the right was in reaction to a swerve in that direction by Démare, who had come around him from behind and on that side. In seeking to track the Frenchman as he launched his sprint, Sagan encroached into the gap that Cavendish had been aiming for, thus closing the door.

That too added a different element, raising questions about whether Sagan had been trying to deliberately block the Manxman or simply following Démare. While deviation from a sprinter’s line is a sanctionable offence, it very seldom results in a disqualification from the race.

In addition, stage winner Démare suffered no consequences of his own, bigger changes in direction.

Furthermore, if no malice was intended in Sagan’s move to the right, and if his elbow movement wasn’t intended to try to bring Cavendish down, the incident takes on a different light.

These considerations added to the questions about whether or not the jury had been too harsh.

Sagan heads home, debate continues

On Wednesday morning, just over two hours before the start of stage 5, Peter Sagan spoke outside his team hotel. He offered a short statement, essentially confirming that he would not be able to continue in the race. A protest against the jury’s decision by his Bora-hansgrohe team had gone unanswered and, without a volte-face, there was no way for him to start the stage.

“I can just accept the decision but for sure I do not agree with it – I don’t think I did something wrong in the sprint,” he said. “It is very bad that Mark fell down. It is important that he can recover well. I am sorry for that. It was – how you see already on the internet – it was a crazy sprint. It was not the first one like that and it is not the last one like that.

“I wish Mark to recover well and that is it.”

Speaking to riders and team managers at the start of stage 5 in Vittel, there was a feeling that Sagan’s punishment was perhaps stronger than was warranted by the incident. Orica-Scott sports director Matt White was one person taking that line.

“Obviously the decision’s what it is. I personally think it was a little too harsh a decision,” he said. “I think the first communique that came out with relegation, docking of points — I think that was fair. But I think he didn’t need to be kicked off the race.”

Over at the Bora-Hansgrohe team bus, the team’s general manager Ralph Denk was clearly frustrated, not just at the decision but at the process as well.

“We made an official protest by the UCI; we did this yesterday evening. Still there is silence and we have no answer,” Denk said. “They took the decision without our mind [ed. without consulting us] and without any mind of the involved riders. I think that is not fair.

“In this case, our sport directors Enrico Poitschke and Patxi Vila were called by the commissaires and they submitted to them just the result. The result was Peter is not more [sic.] in the race. There was no discussion together. We tried to open a discussion but they said the result is already done.”

The original complaint to the race jury had been made by Cavendish’s team, but there was little celebrating at the Dimension Data bus this morning. Doug Ryder, the team’s general manager, spoke to the media about Cavendish’s exit and Sagan’s expulsion.

“It is sad for Mark, it is sad for Peter, it is sad for the Tour de France,” said a clearly frustrated Ryder. “Are we happy? No. Of course not. We have a rider with a broken shoulder. Are we happy that Peter’s out of the race? No, of course not.

“If you take Mark and Peter out of the equation and you put two other riders in, would the result have been any different? I doubt it. I don’t know. But the jury needs to make that call.

“Sprinting has become dangerous and in fact the jury had a meeting and the commissaires had a meeting with all the teams before the race and said ‘We want clean sprints, we are going to look at this seriously and it’s going to be a focus of ours.’”

While Ryder was speaking to the media, Mark Cavendish emerged from the team bus, his injured arm in a sling. Speaking in a deliberate, measured way, Cavendish gave his perspective on Sagan’s expulsion.

“I think what you have to do here is take away the riders involved, take away the jerseys involved and look at what happened,” he said. “And that’s why we have a jury, to make those decisions. If I’m honest it takes a lot of courage, a lot of balls, to eliminate the world champion from the Tour de France. I commend the jury on taking the decision that wasn’t based on uninformed sources [and] social media.”

Cavendish spoke to Sagan last night after returning from hospital.

“We spoke fine, I don’t have any hard feelings towards him. In fact, I think I’m the one guy that stands up for Peter,” Cavendish said, adding that they’d discussed the issue of Sagan’s raised elbow — an issue that left Cavendish “confused” immediately after the crash.

“He said it was keeping himself balanced, so that was nice to know,” Cavendish explained. “He said he didn’t know it was me coming over. I know none of it was malicious — that’s the thing, I knew that straight away which is why I said I was confused yesterday.

“Like I said I have a great relationship with Peter and I think he’s incredible for the sport, an incredible bike rider. He’s always got positive thoughts and he’s good to go talk to.”

What now?

Although Sagan is not the first and will be far from the last rider to be disqualified from a major race, his expulsion has put a spotlight on how the race jury makes its decisions and the lack of an appeals process.

Sagan’s team manager Ralph Denk raised questions about both. He suggested that there is a fairer process outside cycling.

“I know some similar cases in motor sport and it is always the commissaires and the drivers [who meet] and then the form together a decision.”

His point is an interesting one: as things stand right now, jury decisions are taken without the input of the riders who are directly affected by such incidents, and who are far closer to the action.

What is clear is that opinions are very divided about what happened and what penalty was suitable. The absence of rider interviews by the jury in making such decisions has added to the discussion, and so too the absence of an appeals process. Whether or not these two elements should be modified will be part of the broader debate.

Right now, though, two of the sport’s biggest stars are on their way home. Sagan, who is immensely popular with fans, had been vying for a sixth consecutive green jersey and appeared to be on track for that after his stage win on day three.

As for Cavendish, he had worked very hard to get to the race after a bout of Epstein-Barr virus in the months beforehand. His team said after yesterday’s crash that they believe he could have won the stage.

If so, that would have raised his career stage wins to 31, bringing him ever-closer to Eddy Merckx’s record of 34.

Now neither of them will be able to chase those goals.

Opinions may be divided, but one thing seems certain: the Tour de France will be poorer for the loss of Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish. That’s certainly the perspective of GC contender Richie Porte.

“It’s a shame for the race that it’s happened,” Porte said. “No one wants to see Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish go home but that’s sprinters — they’re absolutely mad.”

Link: https://cyclingtips.com/2017/07/sad-tour-de-france-riders-managers-react-peter-sagans-expulsion/

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Sagan heading home as UCI jury holds firm on Tour de France expulsion

by Shane Stokes

VITTEL, France (CT) – Peter Sagan’s bid to win a sixth consecutive green jersey is over and the Slovakian is heading home after a protest by his Bora-hansgrohe team failed to convince a race jury to reinstate him into the race.

The world road race champion tangled with 30-time Tour stage winner Mark Cavendish at the finish of Tuesday’s fourth stage to Vittel, with the latter hitting a roadside barrier and crashing. He was initially told that he had no fractures but a later re-examination in hospital revealed that his right shoulder blade was fractured.

He subsequently announced that he was heading home.

Sagan was disqualified from the Tour de France after the crash. Close to midnight European time his Bora-hasngrohe team said that it would protest the decision.

“The UCI World Champion Peter Sagan was disqualified today, according to article 12.1.040/ 10.2.2. (irregular sprint) in the result/communiqué,” it said in a statement. “The team disagrees with the decision and protested it officially.

“Peter Sagan rejected to have caused, or in any way intended to cause the crash of Mark Cavendish on the final 200m of the stage. Peter stayed on his line in the sprint and could not see Cavendish on the right side.

“The team applied for a redress of Peter Sagan’s result in stage 4.”

This morning at the team hotel near the start in Vittel, Sagan gave a brief statement confirming that the disqualification hadn’t been waived and that he would have to leave the race.

“I can just accept the decision but for sure I do not agree with it – I don’t think I did something wrong in the sprint,” he said.

“It is very bad that Mark fell down. It is important that he can recover well. I am sorry for that. It was – how you see already on the internet – it was a crazy sprint. It was not the first one like that and it is not the last one like that.

“I wish Mark to recover well and that is it.”

Under current UCI rules, Sagan’s team had no official way to appeal the decision. Nevertheless it protested it and hoped that a rethink might have happened. Slow motion analysis of the crash suggested that Sagan’s use of his elbow did not cause the crash with Cavendish, but rather the Slovakian’s change of line.

As a result many on social media, including current and former riders, have said that his disqualification from the race was too harsh.

Sagan’s team manager Ralph Denk was emotional at the start venue in Vittel, and spoke to media about what happened and his reaction. He said he still hoped for a last-minute change of mind.

“We made an official protest by the UCI. We did this yesterday evening. Still there is silence and we have no answer,” he said. “Peter is ready to race. If we get the okay, he is around there. And we have still one hour to go, or more than one hour to go.

“I hope the UCI overrules this because in my opinion and the opinion of the team, it is the totally wrong decision. If you see the pictures, Cavendish comes from behind very fast. He touches before Peter. Peter becomes struggling about this touch point from Cavendish [sic] and after that he needs the elbow to balance this case on the bike. You can imagine how hard this is if you are going full speed and you are touched by Cavendish.

“For sure it was not a fight against Cavendish. The elbow was just for balance on the bike, it was not against Cavendish.”

He added that the neither the riders concerned nor the team were given the chance to be part of the discussion, but rather the UCI jury did it without speaking to anyone. He questioned how valid this approach is, pointing out that motorsport does things differently and involves the riders concerned in any incident.

Link: https://cyclingtips.com/2017/07/sagan-heading-home-uci-jury-holds-firm-tour-de-france-expulsion/\n________________________________________________\n

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