tdf stage 5

Another interesting stage today. A couple of breakaways. Chavenel and Gilbert being the most interesting. But they were reeled in.

But then two strange things happened. Kloden crashed and then his teammate Vino crashed. I predicted last week that something tragic and comic would deep 6 Vinos hopes for the maillot jaune. This may not be it but it was strange. Vino seemingly crashed with his team mate Colom. I'm still not sure quite what happened. But it was clear he was somewhat hurt with a huge tear in his shorts and a very visible road rash. He also lost a lot of time because he crashed at the point where the peloton was cruising. I think he switched bikes. There were some hills today so the peloton got ripped up and he just couldn't easily work his way back even though 6 team members were cycling hard to get him back. By the time the front runners had crossed the finish line, Vino was 1'18" back. And he pooped himself out just to hold at that much of a loss. This isn't enough to kill his hopes but it has certainly made things more difficult for him. Also Kloden fell and was biking fine but he looked hurt as well. It's not good to have a key team member hurting as well.

Pazzato was the winner btw. And the rest of the contenders were in the lead peloton.

The other weird thing is Sastre went off the backend at some point and was seen working his way back up. I'm not sure if he actually made it back. There was some speculation that it was a flat tire and he did make it back.

Here's a list of GC standings for the major players

1 Fabian Cancellara - Maillot Jaune
2 Andreas Klöden +0.33
5 George Hincapie +0.43
7 Vladimir Karpets +0.46
15 Cadel Evans +0.56
17 Michael Rogers +0.57
18 Oscar Pereiro +0.57
22 Levi Leipheimer +1.00
23 Denis Menchov +1.00
25 Alejandro Valverde +1.03
32 Yaroslav Popovych +1.08
36 Christophe Moreau +1.09
47 Carlos Sastre +1.16
48 Frank Schleck +1.17
49 Haimar Zubeldia +1.17
53 Iban Mayo +1.20
56 Michael Boogerd +1.22
57 Manuel Beltran +1.22
63 Juan Miguel Mercado +1.26
78 Sylvain Chavanel +1.56
81 Alexandre Vinokourov +2.10
125 Paolo Savoldelli +8.02