Tour De France – 5 Stage Breakdown.

Here is short breakdown of the first 5 stages. It will not be in roadie etiquette.  There was a small change in the 5^th stage. Enjoy!

The Prologue – 6.4 km

The 99^th Tour De France began on a Tuesday, in warm and dry conditions. 198 riders faced a 6.4 km time trial in the streets of Belgian City of Liege, one intermediate time check at the half way point.  The man on the mission took the prologue, Fabian Cancellara, with Bradley Wiggins and Sylvain Chavanel right behind him at 07”.

Stage 1 – 198.0 km

Stage 1 is from Liege to Seraing, included five categorized hills, all ranked category-four. The white flag was dropped to signal the official start at 12:34pm. Nicolas Edet attacked right out of the get go, next to Morkov (STB), Bouet (ALM), Urtasun (EUS), Delaplace (SAU), Gene (EUC) and Edet (COF). By the 11km mark they had a lead of 3'00” on the peloton. The peloton travels as an integrated unit, like birds flying in formation, each rider making slight adjustments in response to the riders around him or her particularly the one in front of each. When developed riders at the front are exposed to higher loads and will tend to slip off the front in order to rejoin the pack farther back. The average speed for the third hour was 36.3km/h. Yohann Gene (EUC) won the intermediate sprint and his group of six was ahead by 3'10” when he crossed the line. Until about 45km to go, RadioShack accepted that it had to take charge of the chasing duties but with the escapees only 1'25” ahead, several other teams moved to the front of the bunch, including Lotto-Belisol, BCM, Orica-GreenEdge and Sky. The escape was caught with 8km to go and then we saw Lotto-Belisol take control of the peloton. Tucked in behind them were four riders from Orica-GreenEdge.

Stage 2 – 207.5 km

The 207.5km 2nd stage of the 2012 Tour de France, from Vise to Tournai, began at 12:38pm with 198 riders at the sign on. No one was too interested in attacking early and it was a slow start to the race. The only hill was at the Citadel in Namur at the 82.5km mark. After 45km of racing Lotto-Belisol, Orica-GreenEdge and Argos-Shimano sent one rider each to the front of the bunch to swap off and limit the gains of the escapees. The head of the peloton featured numerous team colors from 25km to 15km to go with RadioShack, Sky, Orica, Liquigas and Omega Pharma... but once Roux was reeled in, it was Orica-GreenEdge that had the most riders at the front. Again the man on a mission, Fabian Cancellara finishished 44th, in the same group as the winner: he will wear the yellow jersey in stage three.

Stage 3 –  197.0 km

197.0km from Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer was an animated race, featured six categorized climbs, including four in the closing 16km. The official start was at 12:38pm and all 198 riders were at the sign on. At the 5km mark that five men broke free of the peloton. Minard (ALM) took first place in the intermediate sprint... meanwhile, at the front of the peloton, Orica-GreenEdge tried to set things up for Goss at the intermediate sprint. At the 140km mark there was a fall that involved Farrar and Vande Velde (GRM), Urtasun (EUS) and Sivtsov (SKY). The worst affected was Sivtsov who stayed on the road for quite some time and then, ultimately, was forced to abandon because of his injures. With 38km to go and the peloton only 2'30” behind, Grivko accelerated at the front of the stage. Westra (VCD) got tangled up with a Katusha rider and crashed to the ground, holding up a number of riders... but by then Sagan had pounced ahead to cross the line first. The winner of stage one was so fast that there was daylight between him and the next-best rider, Edvald Boasson Hagen. Cancellara was strong at the finish and claimed fourth place and will continue to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour of 2012.

Stage 4 – 214.5 km

The 214.5km fourth stage of the 99th Tour de France – from Abbeville to Rouen – started at 12:22pm. There were 195 riders at the sign on with Tjallingii (RAB) the non-starter, sustained in a crash in stage three. As soon as racing began Yukiya Arashiro (EUC) attacked. He was joined by Moncoutie (COF) and Delaplace (SAU) and the peloton was happy to let them go: by the 8km mark, they had an advantage of 5'00”. The best on GC after three stages was the Japanese rider who began the day ranked 54th overall, 2'03” behind Cancellara. Most of the favorites – with the notable exception of Cavendish – were still in the hunt for the stage win and Lotto-Belisol had four riders at the front going into the final turn. Petacchi (LAM) and Veelers (ARG) where on the wheel of Greipel but, neither had the speed to get around the Crazy German who claimed his second victory.

Stage 5 – 196.5km

Only 196.5 From Rouen to Saint-Quientin on a flat course on a warm day the Tour started at 12:46pm. There were 195 riders at the sign on. Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ) went on the attack in the opening kilometer and he was quickly joined by three others: Ghyselinck (COF), Simon (SAU) and Urtasun (EUS). The best on GC of the escapees was Ladagnous, 10th overall at the start of the day (8'04” behind Cancellara). Orica-GreenEdge, Lotto-Belisol and RadioShack riders all cooperated at the head of the peloton to limit the gains of Ladagnous' quartet. On the approach to the intermediate sprint, the advantage of the escapees was dropping relatively quickly. Ladagnous led the escape over the line in Breteuil and only in the final kilometer leading to the site of the sprint did the peloton really speed up. The leaders never stopped working together and they held off the peloton's chase having an advantage of 20” with 3km to go. Farrar (GRS) crashed just inside the final 3km and took out a few other rider and hindered the chances of others. The Crazy German won his second successive stage of the Tour de France.
Cancellara finished 32nd and will keep the yellow jersey for another day.

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