The sprinters continued to take turn in the 2013 Tour de France, with Stage 5 the day for Andre Greipel to take his chance and rack up a first win at this years Tour. Another generic sprint stage, saw Peter Sagan rack up another minor placing with his 3rd second, while Marcel Kittel finished third. Mark Cavendish was a fading 4th, but it was a fine effort nonetheless after he hit the deck with 40kmn to go. Sadly for Australia, Darly Impey inherited the Yellow Jersey from Simon Gerransafter finishing ahead of him on the day's stage, but the Jersey at least satays with the Austalian Orica-Green Edge team.
In reality, the race was delivered on a platter to Greipel. He had a charmed run throughout the stage and was delivered to the finish on a platter by his Lotto team. Neither Sagan or Kittel had the power to go past him, and Cav ran out of energy in the final 500m after chasing to get back onto the peleton after his crash, and then being blocked for a run by one of Greipel's lead out men who dangerously swung off the front of the train in the closing stages. I would not be suprised if he we heard a few harsh words from Cav about that move in the post race interviews. Still Greipel held them all easily in the end and was probbly the deserved winner on the day (although I still think he is a bit of a douchebag). It should also provide a golden double victory for Germany unless Sabine Lasicki chokes away her winning position in her Wimbledon semi (currently doing a good job of that as we speak).
Sadly for Simon Gerrans, the peleton split by a few seconds on hectic run into the finish, and this saw South Africa's Daryl Impey take the maillot jaune off his soldiers - the first African to wear the Yellow Jersey, and a rare bright spark in what has been a recent difficult period for the Saffers. Edvald Boasson Hagen is now second overall at 3 seconds, while Gerrans is 5 seconds back in third. There was no major time lost by the GC contenders.
Tomorrow might see an outside chance of a breakaway succeeding with a cat-2 climbing appearing halfway through the stage into Albi.
Yellow Jersey - Darl Impey
Green Jersey - Peter Sagan
Polka Dot Jersey - Pierre Rolland
White Jersey - Michal Kwiatowski (provisional)
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