Victor Victorious

As expected, it was not a day for a bunch sprint. Not yet a day for the climbers either. More of a stage suited to the classics riders. And Vic has a couple of good ones in Friere and Hincapie. Together, they collected him enough points for the stage win today. So Matt's string of emphatic stage wins comes to an end, at least temporarily. Tomorrow's stage should provide one more opportunity for the fast men to stretch their legs. But then we hit the Alps, the roads go way up, and the GC contenders should start to show their cards. Matt still has a solid grasp on yellow. How long can he hold on to it?

It was not a good day for the biggest of the GC men today. Vinokourov went down at around 25 km from the finish, got all bloodied, and ended up conceding about a minute and a half to his rivals. Bad news for Swatty, good news for TdF couch potatoes, as this makes it almost certain that he will attack like crazy in the mountains and really stir things up. Saturday should be exciting. Full report of today's action over at pez.

Stage 5 results:

1) Vic - 178
2) Jonny G - 121
3) Chris - 100
4) Matt - 71
5) Hal - 25
6) Charlene - 21
7) Johnny S - 20
8) Cheryl - 17
9) Jonny B - 13
10) David L - 6
11) Rachel - 0
12) David S - 0

General Classification after stage 5:

1) Matt - 981
2) Hal - 564
3) Jonny G - 516
4) Cheryl - 469
5) Vic - 460
6) Chris - 386
7) Charlene - 293
8) David L - 280
9) Rachel - 268
10) David S - 51
11) Johnny S - 44
12) Jonny B - 42



OTT: Arcade Fire, Ocean of Noise