July 11, 2002 – (Rouen, France) After a day of team time trialing, the Tour
de France returned to the flat roads of Northern France. Thought to be a day
for the sprinters, a 4-man break managed to thwart Credit
Agricole and ONCE who were chasing. Estonian National Champion
Jaan Kirsipuu (Ag2R Prevoyance), a sprinter in his own right, played his
cards right and took
the victory from what could have been excellent retribution for 2nd placed
Michael Sandstod (CSC-Tiscali). Much talk has been made of CSC’s confusion
in the TTT yesterday, when half the team seemed to wait for Sandstod’s
flat. Clearly
annoyed was team leader Laurent Jalabert, who was only a few seconds away
from the Yellow Jersey.
Interestingly, Green Jersey Erik Zabel’s Telekom team did nothing to help
the chase back of the breakaway today. Furthermore, he only placed 4th in
the bunch sprint, behind Australian trio Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Adecco), Baden
Cooke (FDJeux.com) and Stuart O’Grady (Credit Agricole).
The GC is unchanged after today’s stage, with Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano
(ONCE-Eroski) still in the lead.
Stage 5: Soissons – Rouen, 195 km
1. Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Ag2R Prevoyance 4.13.33 (46.14 km/h)
2. Michael Sandstod (Den) CSC-Tiscali
3. Ludo Dierckxsens (Bel) Lampre Daikin
4. Stefano Casagranda (Ita) Alessio 0.03
5. Christophe Edalaine (Fra) Jean Delatour 0.08
6. Robbie McEwen (Aus) Lotto-Adecco 0.33
7. Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com
8. Stuart O’Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole
9. Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Deutsche Telekom
10. Andrej Hauptman (Slo) Tacconi Sport
11. Arvis Piziks (Lat) CSC-Tiscali
12. Jan Svorada (Cze) Lampre Daikin
13. Nico Mattan (Bel) Cofidis
14. Robert Hunter (RSA) Mapei-Quick Step
15. Luciano Pagliarini (Bra) Lampre Daikin
16. Emmanuel Magnien (Fra) Bonjour
17. FranÃÂois Simon (Fra) Bonjour
18. JosÈ Enrique Gutierrez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca
19. Victor Hugo Pena Grisales (Col) US Postal Service
20. Laurent Brochard (Fra) Jean Delatour
Overall:
1. Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski
2. Joseba Beloki (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 0.04
3. Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service 0.07
4. Jorg Jaksche (Ger) ONCE-Eroski 0.12
5. Abraham Olano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 0.22
6. Roberto Heras Hernandez (Spa) US Postal Service 0.25
7. Isidro Nozal (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 0.27
8. JosÈ Azevedo (Por) ONCE-Eroski 0.28
9. George Hincapie (USA) US Postal Service s.t
10. Marcos A.Serrano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 0.30