For the second time in two years, Arras played host to a Tour stage. And for the second time in two years, it was a gray and soggy morning. The rain divided its time evenly between drizzling, down pouring, and taking a break. As the team buses arrived, the rain actually let up for the first thirty minutes of the sign on window. Of course, no more than a dozen of the 190 or so riders actually signed on during the dry spell.
One drawback of the new digital podium is that it's so tall, most riders disappear when they stand behind it!
Cyril Gautier and Pierre Rolland.
Like all of the big French riders, Rolland, leader of Europcar, is in special demand once again now that the race has left Holland and Belgium for France.
Sprinter Bryan Coquard.
With about 20 minutes to go and the bulk of the peloton yet to sign on, the rain picked up again just in time for maillot jaune Tony Martin and his Etixx Quick Step teammates to arrive and claim their prize as the best overall team. As is often the case, the media, who understandably have a job to do, blocked the public's view.
Unlike the 2014 departure which began inside the picturesque citadel in a muddy square, Arras moved the start this year to a parking lot just outside the citadel (though there was still some mud to be found).
Riders grabbed their snacks, then lingered under the relative shelter of the Power Bar umbrella.
When virtually every rider turned up at the same time just a few minutes before the stage was due to start, the commissarie allows everyone to sign on and the start was nearly ten minutes delayed.
The peloton was on its way to Amiens, precisely where I changed trains after leaving Arras. As the arrival was just outside the train station, I was sorely tempted to stick around for the next few hours until the finish, but stuck to my original itinerary and caught the race on TV. Ironically, following the tour in person means I get to see surprisingly little of the race itself!
The parcours took the peloton across the fields of northern France. It was fields of green and wheat as far as the eye could see, interrupted every few kilometers by museums, memorials, cemeteries, and bomb craters from WWI. Today, the world watched a bike race when one hundred years ago, the world watched a war unfold.
A peloton of probably 70-80 riders moved as one into a strong headwind. With all the GC riders and sprinters protected in the first group, there were a few early crashes, following which it was a relatively uneventful day until at 25k to go, a Katusha rider rear ended a Cannondale Garmin rider about halfway through the pack, taking down nearly everyone behind. It looked as though everyone got back up (unlike an earlier crash which saw Nacer Bouhanni exit the race) but the time wasted waiting for team cars and energy spent chasing back didn't do anyone any favors.
At 10k to go, all of the present teams were organized and the trains battled for positioning. With 6k left, Cavendish, Kristoff, and Sagan were side by side. In the last 5k, most teams were down to just 3 riders while Etixx Quick Step still had 5. Sprint trains began to fall apart in the chaos. By the flamme rouge, Giant, Lotto Soudal, and Etixx were well positioned. In the final few hundred meters, no sprinter was sitting on his lead out man's wheel and it was every man for himself. Coming from fifth place back, Andre Greipel rocketed past the competition, starting on the right side of the road and finishing on the left, to claim his second stage win, ahead of a still accelerating Peter Sagan. It was another disappointing day for Cavendish (3rd) and Degenkolb (6th), having both come close to stage wins already.
Stage six continues the Tour's journey westward along the north of France with a trio of category 4 climbs that aren't likely to be decisive. The finale is punchy and the finish line is likely to suit a Degenkolb or Kristoff style sprinter though Ramunas Navardauskas is a plausible dark horse so long as his team can position him. Michael Matthews probably had earmarked this stage, but has been off the back since the rib-breaking stage 3 crash. It'll be an interesting one for sure.
Today's seven autographs (a decent tally considering I had put the flag away for most of the morning given the rain) came from: 32 Peter Kennaugh, 61 Tejay Vangarderen, 106 Svein Tuft, 128 Angelo Tulik, 129 Thomas Voeckler, 182 Matthias Brandle, and 201 Eduardo Sepúlveda.
