Tour fans could be excused for thinking they had been transported back in time on Wednesday. With Thomas Voeckler the darling of France, and Lance Armstrong sitting second on the overall classification you could be forgiven for thinking we had never left the Armstrong era.
A perennial breakaway man but rarely a winner, the ultimate persistence finally paid of for Voeckler, 5 years to the day he pulled on his first Yellow Jersey. The surviving member of a 6 man breakaway, the plucky Frenchman held off the entire peleton in the closing kilometres to win, with a margin of 7 seconds to spare, Stage 5, a 196.5km trek from Le Cap d'Agde to Perpignan. Fellow escapee Mikhail Ignatiev managed to just survive the on-rushing peleton to finish second, while the main group was led home by none other than 'The Missile', Mark Cavendish.
The rest of the main group finished together with none of the main GC contenders losing any time. Although hard riding from team Saxo Bank at the behest of Fabian Cancellara saw the peleton again split by strong winds on the run into the finish, none of the main GC contenders missed the split and the peleton was allowed to regroup. However, young Dutch star Robert Gesink's Tour is over, after he crashed and was found to have a broken wrist. He will not take his place at the start line tomorrow.
Cavendish's third saw him increase his lead in the points competition finishing some seven places ahead of his nearest rival Thor Hushovd (10th). He now has a 26 point buffer over the 'God Of Thunder'. Cancellera held onto the Yellow Jersey and will wear it for the 5th straight day on Thursday. Rumours are starting to circle that Cancellara could be primed for a miracle run at the overall title, but I can't see that happening myself. I still thank Saxo Bank are better pinning their hopes on Andy Schleck who can make major time in the mountains.
But it is Voeckler who will write his name into immortality amongst the French public. Despite wearing the yellow jersey for over a week in 2004, today's victory marks his first ever Tour win.
Yellow Jersey - Fabian Cancellara
Green Jersey - Mark Cavendish
Polka Dot Jersey - Jussi Veikkanen
White Jersey - Tony Martin
Photo courtesy of Yahoo Sports.
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