Oscar Freire Takes Stage 5

Stage 5 of this years Tour de France was once again text book “week one” offering a fairly flat stage for the sprinters with several minimal category 4 climbs that had no effect in the day’s out come. Their was the usual “suicide break” that consisted of two men (Samuel Dumoulin and Björn Schröder) who broke away very early in the day and were caught with two kilometers to the line.

Teams lead by Tom Boonen (Quick-Step), Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) and Erik Zabel (Milram) worked hard for their leaders in hopes of a Tour victory. However world champion Oscar Freire out smarted them all winning by one bike length. Surely it was good news for the Rabobank team who earlier in the tour lost team mate Erik Dekker to a crash.

Tom Boonen placed second overall in today’s stage which gave him a time bonus of 12 seconds which extends his GC lead to 13 seconds over Michael Rogers (T-Mobile). Friday’s 189 kilometer stage is once again flat and will most likely be fairly uneventful for riders with winning aspirations as they prepare mentally for Saturdays first big test, a 52 kilometer time trial.

Top Twenty Results Stage 5, 2006 Tour de France:

1 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
2 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step
3 Iñaki Flores (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
4 David Kopp (Ger) Gerolsteiner
5 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto
6 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
7 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole
8 Francisco José Ventoso (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
9 Erik Zabel (Ger) Milram
10 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Française Des Jeux
11 Luca Paolini (Ita) Liquigas
12 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
13 Cristian Moreni (Ita) Cofidis
14 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Cofidis
15 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) T-Mobile
16 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears
17 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
18 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Rabobank
19 Andreas Klöden (Ger) T-Mobile
20 Christophe Laurent (Fra) Agritubel