A stage for the sprinters.
Stage 5 Review: Simon Clarke won the day, beating Bauke Mollema and Alessandro de Marchi after a nailbiting finish where the trio spent the final kilometres marking each other as if none of them believed in their chances in the sprint. Clarke’s won a stage of the Vuelta before and has a collection of track titles and sure enough he was the best in the sprint. Mollema and de Marchi didn’t win but with hillier, harder finishes ahead they’ll have more chances. Meanwhile Groupama-FDJ’s Rudy Molard is the new race leader.
The Route: 155km and if there’s climbing the two ascents are short at 4km each.
The Finish: fast and flat but with an awkward bend with 700m to go, notionally a left turn but this involves going three quarters of the way around a roundabout, 270 degrees to the right rather than 90 degrees to the left. Then a straight dash to the line.
The Contenders: Elia Viviani (Quick Step) once again. He’s got the speed and he’s got the team which counts for the tricky finish. Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) doesn’t have the lead out train but should be close, ditto Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo)
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Elia Viviani |
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Nacer Bouhanni, Giacomo Nizzolo |
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Trentin, van Poppel |
Weather: warm and sunny but not hot, just 27°C and a 20km/h headwind for much of the stage.
Tune in: the finish is forecast for 5.40pm CEST.
Who is Rudy Molard? I’m guessing the chances of him remaining in red when the road rises are infinitesimal.
Is this a real question? It can‘t be.
He is a professional bike rider. With the exception of 2015 he raced at least one Grand Tour every year. He won stage 6 of Paris-Nice this year, had a decent Tour 2018 despite a big crash at the beginning of the Tour.
Yes, he’s a good climber, normally hired to help Pinot but took his chance.
Which means he has won more World Tour stages than BTL favourite Wilco Kelderman.
Nice to see an FDJ rider leading a Vuelta. That’s a real statement, it can be!
Not a bad day for Team Sky to relinquish the leader’s jersey, 20 kph headwinds?
Well done to Mollard and FDJ.
Please provide him with an aero jersey however, that one in the picture above looks as if it’s meant for someone else, which in a way I suppose it is but it still seems as if the organisers were caught unprepared 🙂
It appeared that that was the case throughout the Tour. Thomas’ podium jersey was always about 2 inches too short
I read somewhere that ASO have three sizes of each jersey for the Tour and choose the appropriate size for that day’s wearer on the podium. Maybe they should have more variety.
I assumed that the jersey they wore on the podium and the jersey for the race are different. is that not so?
They are – given that I know this I’m guessing INRNG has dedicated a post to it previously… 🙂
I think if memory serves the leader gets a couple of jerseys… the podium one, specifically designed to go on over their race jersey… the race issue for the next day and possibly a couple more which are generally gifted away.
Yes, it’s a special podium jersey, the zipper is on the back of the jersey so it can be put on easily on stage. The race has a stock of blank jerseys with a white block on the front and as soon as the day’s leader is known then behind the podium truck someone uses a special press to place the relevant sponsor logos on it.
More from http://inrng.com/2012/12/how-are-jerseys-made/
Who cares how the jersey on the podium ceremony looks. He’ll have a descent one today. Unless you’re writing on a fashion blog, which I believe, this is not.
He is French. The French media were orgasmic last night,,I thought that I had gone to sleep and missed the final two weeks and this was the end of the race, the headlines were so ecstatic.
Apparently there has not been a French winner of a STAGE since….. About seventeen years, I’m sorry not to be more accurate,,but this tablet is on its last legs and I darent go out and look it up. Anyway, I expect our host or someone more knowledgeable than me will supply the exact detail.
What about Barguil? Latour?
Or do you mean the red jersey?
He’s the first French wearer of the jersey since Chavanel in 2011 and FDJ’s first grand tour leader since the days of Brad McGee.
“Apparently there has not been a French winner of a STAGE since….. About seventeen years”
Where did you get this nonsense from, BreitbartFox Fact Sheet?
For the record, Julian Alaphilippe won a stage just last year. There have been many more French wins in the last 5 years, including 4 just in 2013. And of course there was David Moncoutié’s fantastic run of four consecutive yearly mountain stages and KOM jerseys between 2008 and 2011.
My comment was in answer to the first question! Sorry. I must get a new tablet.
Cassandra… apology accepted on behalf of the 98% of readers of this blog who accept mistakes, respect others opinions, and who have the ability to talk to their fellow human beings politely.
Delighted for Molard and FDJ really enjoyed the stage its always a delight when the breakaway succeeds lots of action
The last few KM were hard to watch. I’m so pleased Clarke won and that EF Drapac finally have a win – hopefully now they’ve broken the run a lot more will follow.
I do wish to see more stage wins like this, a break away from the usual head train riding tactics throughout. Not very stylistic so to speak. I love to see Voeckler and Chavanel more in fact, Pinot in particular. We are French we love our own way of racing tactics. How unbreakable for years. Lapierre for one never care to share big the Asian markets. I admire that.
Molard didn’t win the jersey. By Kwiatkowski’s own admission Sky decided to give it up to save energy and pick their battles. This seems very wise considering, again by Kwiatkowski’s own admission, that he is not the strongest of GC contenders. He therefore has to decide which days to go all in and which days to hang fire. A day or two in the sun for FDJ and Molard but nothing more.
Molard’s winning a courtesy of Sky. Can’t argue if mighty Michal wish to chase him down and take another stage win. And they are capable of doing so riding only half full gas! But then I also remember the infamous LA chasing down F Simeoni (2004?). I’d like sharing the Golden pond better.