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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mhku" data-source="post: 618062" data-attributes="member: 190842">Stage 5 - LE CAP D’AGDE > PERPIGNAN Frenchman Thomas Voeckler took victory on stage 5 of the Tour de France in Perpignan after jumping clear of a breakaway.The Bouygues Telecom man made the decisive break four kilometres from home, using a roundabout to launch his attack and secure his maiden Tour win.As his fellow escapees sat up and looked at each other, Voeckler put his head down and time-trialled his way to the line, leaving himself enough time to savour victory on the home straight.Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) was second, while the rest of the breakaway was swallowed up by a fast-moving peloton, led home by Columbia's Mark Cavendish, who extended his lead over Thor Hushovd in the sprinters' points classification.The favourites for the yellow jersey finished safely in the peloton, so Fabian Cancellara keeps hold of his yellow jersey.Though Voeckler had successfully broken clear early on along with Ignatiev, Anthony Geslin and Yauheni Hutarovich (both FdJ), Albert Timmer (Skil-Shimano) and Marcin Sapa (Lampre), it seemed the peloton had them on a tight leash, as Columbia worked to cut the gap to 4'16" at the fourth-catogory Côte de Treilles with 74 kilometres remaining.On the descent of the Côte, however, the Saxo Bank team put the hammer down hard as fierce crosswinds began to buffet the peloton. Chaos reigned, and the peloton was immediately split into four groups, with Rabobank's young star Robert Gesink unable to keep pace after injuring his arm in a fall.Just as he had done on stage 3, Gesink's team-mate Denis Menchov missed the vital split, and was left to help orchestrate a desperate chase in the second peloton that only ended with 20 kilometres remaining.With the breakaway riders just over a minute ahead at this stage, a bunch sprint seemed inevitable, though the sextet continued to work well together, while the sprinters teams bickered at the head of the peloton as to who would continue the chase.Wary of the sprinting ability of Hutarovich, Ignatiev twice tried in vain to jump clear, only to watch Voeckler time his move to perfection four kilometres out.As Voeckler opened up a sizeable gap, it became clear the peloton were leaving it too late to chase down the breakaway, and had possibly underestimate the strength of Voeckler.Timmer and Ignatiev both gave their all to chase down Voeckler, but the man from Martinique was not to be caught, and he gave his Bbox Bouygues Telecom a valuable victory after their crash-ridden team time-trial in stage four.Thursday's sixth stage takes the riders 181 kilometres from Girona to Barcelona, before the race heads into the Pyrenees on Friday.src: _http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/08072009/58/tour-de-france-voeckler-victorious-perpignan.htmlAnd the Eurosport website is showing 2008 results in the standings...Cadel Evans is 2'59" behind Cancellara and Armstrong. He has a weak team so what are the chances that he'll try a breakaway before the Mountains? Or is his Tour over as some are whispering?Stage 5 Results:* 1. Thomas Voeckler Bbox Bouygues Telecom in 4:29:35* 2. Mikhail Ignatiev Team Katusha in 4:29:42* 3. Mark Cavendish Team Columbia - Htc in 4:29:42 at 00:07* 4. Tyler Farrar Garmin - Slipstream in 4:29:42 at 00:07* 5. Gerald Ciolek Team Milram in 4:29:42 at 00:07* 6. Danilo Napolitano Team Katusha in 4:29:42 at 00:07* 7. Joaquin Rojas Jose Caisse D’epargne in 4:29:42 at 00:07* 8. Lloyd Mondory Ag2r-La Mondiale in 4:29:42 at 00:07* 9. Oscar Freire Rabobank in 4:29:42 at 00:07* 10. Thor Hushovd Cervelo Test Team in 4:29:42 at 00:07Overall Standings:# 1. Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank in 15:07:49# 2. Lance Armstrong Astana# 3. Alberto Contador Astana in 15:08:08 at 00:19# 4. Andréas KlÖden Astana in 15:08:12 at 00:23# 5. Levi Leipheimer Astana in 15:08:20 at 00:31# 6. Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream in 15:08:27 at 00:38# 7. Haimar Zubeldia Astana in 15:08:40 at 00:51# 8. Tony Martin Team Columbia - Htc in 15:08:41 at 00:52# 9. David Zabriskie Garmin - Slipstream in 15:08:55 at 01:06# 10. David Millar Garmin - Slipstream in 15:08:56 at 01:07Jerseys:Yellow: Cancellara Green: CavendishWhite:  MARTINPolka dot:  VEIKKANENTeam: Astana</blockquote>

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