Greipel takes his second stage win

Andre Greipel took advantage of a perfect sprinter’s stage, by powering his way in the final sprint, beating rivals as he tightened his grip on the Green Jersey. This stage was marred by crashes and strong winds that blew riders all over the place. France’s Nacer Bouhanni crashed out just 12kms into the stage and was forced to abandon the tour.

The stage followed a route along what would have been frontlines for the Allies in WW1. Memorials were passed, to the Anzacs, British and French troops. The weather was not helpful, with winds blowing and rain causing the roads to remain wet throughout the course. Greipel was one of the many cyclists to go down but luckily, there were not many serious injuries picked up, only minor knocks from then on. Greipel recovered to win the Intermediate sprint as well.

The largest crash came 25kms from the finish when a single rider, who braked on a slippery road lost control and fell. He was in the middle of the Peloton. That caused a domino effect taking around 30 others down. Including last year’s second and third placed riders, Peraud and Pinot. They both made it back to the leading group though. Pinot has had a tour to forget so far, far off the pace of the leading favorites.

10kms to go, BMC started to take control of the pace making, with Etixx-Quick step making its move around 3kms to go. With Tony Martin then assured off his Yellow Jersey (riders who crash in the final 3kms are given the time of the leading riders when they finish), began to pace Mark Cavendish. Other teams cut him out and Cavendish was left without lead-out man , Mark Renshaw. Despite a valiant effort in battling Kristoff and Sagan and Degenkolb, It was the Green Jersey who then powered down the left to leave his rivals in the dust.

German riders have now won 3 of the 5 stages in this years tour. This was the first stage this year, where the General Classification favorites did not really battle but, just kept each other in check.

The winner of the day was Greipel who has now extended his lead on in the points to 32. If he wants the Green Jersey at Paris, he will have to beat Sagan in every flat stage at the final sprint and intermediate sprint (Sagan is a powerful climber unlike Greipel).

Biggest loser was Etixx-Quick Step. Without a doubt they are one of the top teams but they just were defeated in their build up. Without a proper lead out or being paced, Cavendish could not win the stage on his own, in what could have capped off a perfect stage for the Belgian outfit.

The toughest rider this stage, it has to be mentioned was Orica GreenEdge’s Michael Matthews. After a nasty crash in Stage 3, the young Australian rider has been soldiering forward in stages 4 and 5 so far. Speaking on his experience on the night after the crash

“Through the night I was really struggling to breathe, Every time I move it feels like someone is shoving a knife in my chest.I woke up in the middle of the night having a little panic attack thinking that I couldn’t breathe.That was quite scary but I was able to get a little bit of sleep and enough to feel a little better today.”

After Today, the General Classification as follows

The General Classifications looks as follows