TDU: Ventoso Takes Stage, Meyer Hangs On!

Madness on Old Willunga Hill!Francisco Ventoso sprinted to a stage 5 victory after climbing the dreaded Old Willunga Hill twice and watching the chaos unfold around him. This was a big win for Ventoso and his new Movistar team but perhaps an even bigger day for Cam Meyer, who preserved his ochre jersey and lost only a few seconds of his lead.

Let's see if I can take you from the start:

After the early break was reeled in and many of the weakest climbers (like Cavendish, Farrar, and Dean pictured above) were dropped the field embarked on its first trip up Old Willunga Hill. For those unfamiliar with it, Old Willunga Hill is considered to be the toughest stage every year in the Tour Down Under and races are usually decided on its summit. Actually, the first trip up the slope went quite smoothly and the peloton stayed intact for the most part but things started to heat up on the descent.

And who better to start the excitement than Lance Armstrong...

Lance made one final go at glory when he attacked along with 6 other riders but they just could not escape the clutches of Garmin-Cervelo and the peloton.

It's worth noting that Garmin-Cervelo did an absolutely amazing job controlling the peloton yesterday. To put things into perspective, Tyler Farrar and Julian Dean were taking long turns up front before they were finally dropped on the climb.

But anyway, Garmin dominated the 1st lap around but they would have much more difficulty on the 2nd.

This is where things get exciting. On the 2nd and final trip up Old Willunga Hill it was Australian Richie Porte who launched an attack along with Ben Hermans. Jack Bobridge was all over Richie Porte (trying to police things for Meyer) and all of a sudden there was a powerhouse 3 man breakaway up front.

Now I can't say for sure that things would have been different if Bobridge was working for himself, but he did absolutely no work on the front of the breakaway in order to slow them down for Meyer and the rest of his teammates driving the front. Bobridge is an incredibly strong rider, and probably could have attacked the break and easily grabbed the stage win at this point but he did the team-oriented thing and protected the ochre jersey well.

Needless to say, Porte and Hermans would soon tire and the breakaway was caught leaving a 20 man "mini-peloton" up front.

Meyer, Goss, Mike Matthews, Simon Gerrans, Ben Swift, JJ Rojas, Gorka Izagirre, Laurens tan Dem, Allan Davis, and obviously Ventoso were among those 20 but there were some less fortunate.

Robbie McEwen was completely buried by the field and Andre Greipel tried to catch the group but fell short so both of those riders essentially saw their title hopes ended yesterday. (both were in the top 5).

After Bobridge crashed it was down to just 18 to decide amongst themselves the winner of the stage and potentially the entire Tour on the final run in to the finish. Garmin continued to protect Cam Meyer until it was all but sure that he would stay with the 18 man group and protect his ochre jersey one more day.

Gorka Izagirre launched a daring attack on the final kilometer than came o so close to succeeding but he just fell apart in the final few hundred meters and was easily overtaken by the chasing group of sprinters. Stage winners Matt Goss and Michael Matthews put up a strong fight but Francisco Ventoso would not be denied and picked up a huge win for himself and his Movistar team.

Stage Results

1. Francisco Ventoso

2. Michael Matthews

3. Matt Goss

Look for more on the stage 6 preview...