Tour de France Update (Spoiler)

Word Press ^ | July 8, 2010 | Todd Kinsey

[Todd Kinsey]

Mark Cavendish silenced his critics today taking a decisive win in Thursday’s fifth stage. Cavendish timed his move perfectly as Garmin had set up what looked like the perfect lead out for their man Tyler Farrar. Gerald Ciolek also jumped at the same time but Cavendish was not going to be denied beating the German to the line by a convincing two bike lengths. Cav’s former lead out man Edvald Boasson Hagen claimed third, and overall points leader Thor Hushovd finished fifth.

An emotional Cavendish had tears in his eyes as he stood on the podium today. Following today’s win he said “it means everything to win. All the pressure and emotion built up but it’s finally over.” Cavendish now has 11 Tour de France stage victories, the most by a Brit ever.

[Todd Kinsey]

Tomorrow’s stage 6 should be another day for the sprinters but with 4 category 4 climbs, a well-timed attack out of the breakaway group could be enough to take the win. It all depends on how much the sprinter’s teams want to control the pace tomorrow because the GC teams will want to rest their riders for the impending battle in the Alps this weekend.

[mainsail that]

The winner should be declared in 4-5 years, after all the blood and urine tests have been run

[Mariner]

So, Saturday and Sunday will give us a glimpse of the Contrador - Armstrong battle to come?

[Vision]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2545918/posts?q=1&;page=1#1

[Todd Kinsey]

Very cool. I’ve been blogging live as well, although I only posted 1X per day yesterday and today.

[Todd Kinsey]

We should have a pretty clear idea of who's strong and who's not. Saturday should be good although there is about 5K for those who were dropped on the climb to catch back on. Sunday, however, should be decisive as the climb the Cat 1 Morzine and finish on the summit. Then the riders get a rest day before tackling the HC Madeleine on Tuesday but there's about 30K for riders to descend and limit their losses. Personally I can't wait, next to college football this is my favorite sport.