2008 Tour De France : Stage 5 Cholet - Châteauroux 230 km Wednesday, July

Grater

That's true!

Hopefully there is a sprint finish but the break can't get more than 6 minutes lead for it to happen.

classic1

McEwen
Cooke
Renshaw
O'Grady
Lancaster
Haussler

Only 6 1/2 months to Australia day.

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Scotttri

I'm with you on that one.

Crankyfeet

Well the break of french riders has already got over 8'15" gap on the Peloton after 65 km.

The three riders in the break group are Lilian Jegou (Francaise des Jeux), Nicolas Vogondy (Agritubel) and Florent Brard (Cofidis).

The break around 8 mins is fine as long as the bunch start reeling them in early enough IMO. Like around 80 km to go.

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TheDarkLord

Looks like Soler abandoned after 12 km into today's stage. CN reports that he had another spill in the neutral zone. So, the inevitable has finally happened. Hope he has better luck next year.

Crankyfeet

The break is down to 7'30" with 160km to go. Looks like the peloton is being vigilant... as they report on CN.

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Scotttri

It's good to see a break succeed, but thats already happened, so now it would be good to see a proper bunch sprint, I think McEwen is the man

jhuskey

Long stage and plenty of time for another break but we will see.

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classic1

Poor old Soler. He's a tough bastard. He can't ride a bike properly yet he chooses cycling as a way of earning a living. Hard as nails. If he couldn't swim I'm sure he would have chosen alligator wrangling or surf lifesaving as a career. Tough as old boots

__________________
“I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”
Genghis Khan

Powerful Pete

That is too bad. Respect to him for having hung in there into the fifth stage.

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Eldron

When god was handing out bodies I think Soler got the leftovers. His legs aren't the same length, neither are his arms, his head is on skew - even his back looks like somebody wound him up before they attached it...

I'm rather sad for the fellow. Quietly gets on with the job without pomp and ceremony... Big up respect.

His misfortune is South(ern) Africas fortune though - the whole team will now be leading out Hunter and I fancy Augustyn and Froome for suicidal breaks on the transitional stages.

National pride aside I'm loving the Tour this year. I'm like a 7 year old kid again. Fantastic!!

Wow talk about digressing - as you were people...

Oh and regarding the stage Robbie, Robbie, Robbie with a few bob on Zabel as an outsider....

TheDarkLord

About 70 km to go with the gap under 3.5 min. Looks like this will end up being a bunch sprint.

Powerful Pete

Well, seems like they learned their lesson from the other day...

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TheDarkLord

Yeah. From the general comments in the live commentary on CN, it looks like some teams were just unwilling to do work in that stage (to chase down the break that is), and there was no organization among the teams.