Tour de France

Fifth stage: Voeckler picks up first French win

Article published on the 2009-07-08 Latest update 2009-07-10 07:36 TU

Thomas Voeckler arrives at the finish line.
(Photo: Reuters)

Thomas Voeckler, riding with Bouygues Telecom, took the 5th stage of the Tour de France Wednesday in Perpignon, near the Spanish border. Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara keeps the yellow jersey.

Voeckler pulled ahead of the pack with 5km to go in the 196km route, and crossed the line seven seconds ahead of the Russian Mikhail Ignatiev.

“I never believed [I would win] considering the [small] lead,” Voeckler said. “It was only with 300 meters to go that I knew I would win.”

The victory has breathed wind into the sails of Voeckler’s Bouygues team, which had a disasterous day on Tuesday during the team time trials.

Voeckler, 30, wore the yellow jersey for 10 days during the 2004 tour.

Stage five individual results:

1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom 4:29:35  

2 Mikhail Ignatiev (Rus) Team Katusha +7 seconds  

3 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - HTC    

4 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Slipstream    

5 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram    

6 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Team Katusha    

7 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne    

8 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale    

9 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank    

10 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team

Overall results after five stages

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 15:07:49  

2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana    

3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:00:19  

4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:00:23  

5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 0:00:31  

6 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:00:38  

7 Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa) Astana 0:00:51  

8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:00:52  

9 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:06  

10 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:07