62nd Tour de Romandie - Stage 5 Live
A break is out in front with five familiar faces of the serial attackers this tour... can they evade capture today

Stage 5 - Le Bouveret - Lausanne 154 km
Welcome to the final stage of the 2008 Tour de Romandie. The stage is from Le Bouveret to Lausanne over 152,4 km and is certainly not a flat stage. Andreas Klöden is the leader in the general ranking with 35 sec on young Czech Roman Kreuziger and 43 seconds on 2007 maglia rosa wearer Marco Pinotti.

1333 CEST - Alexandre Moos (BMC), Mathias Frank (Gerolsteiner), Jérôme Coppel (FDJ), Alexandre Botcharov (C.A.) and Stef Clement (Bouygues Telecom). They attacked in the beginning of the stage had a maximum gap thus far of 2.25 and at the moment 1.40 is left of that after 70 km of racing.

The placings of the riders in the break in the GC before todays stage were:
25 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole 4.00
26 Alexandre Moos (Swi) BMC Racing Team 4.13
36 Stef Clement (Ned) Bouygues Telecom 8.22
45 Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Française des Jeux 12.14
81 Mathias Frank (Swi) Gerolsteiner 30.12

1340 CEST - 74 km to go and the gap of the break is up to 2.51 again. Cofidis is leading the pace in the bunch. Maybe Nick Nuyens feels himself well to battle for the stage win? Pliuschin is 1.50 down on the break. All these riders have ridden a very aggressive tour de Romandie as it is not the first time that they are riding in the break.

Didn't start today were: Robbie McEwen (Silence), Alberto Fernandez (Sdv) Manuele Mori (Sdv) and Leonardo Scarseli (Qst). Thus far Dominique Cornu (Silence-Lotto) abandoned during the stage.

Liquigas and Astana are setting the pace in the bunch. Liquigas does the work for Kreuziger and maybe Bennati. After the non start of McEwen Bennati has a chance to win the stage today, as Bennati can climb quite well for a sprinter.

1344 CEST - 65 km to go and the gap up to 3.17

Breaking News - The 2nd stage in the Vuelta a Asturias is won by Acqua & Sapone rider Stefano Garzelli. In the bunch sprint he was faster than his team mate Diego Milan and Tinkoff youngster Bernardo Riccio. Angel Vicioso remains in the lead. The race will be decided in an afternoon time trial as stage 2b. Read Fabio's report here.

The 5 leaders Coppel, Moos, Frank, Clement and Botcharov are working well together. The final circuit around Lausanne is very tough. The final 500 mt towards the finish is going up

Crash in the bunch with Nick Gates, Oscar Pereiro, Ian McKissick, Bauke Mollema and some more riders. The crash happened in the feed zone. Luckily, nobody seems seriously injured.

1400 CEST - 50 km to go, not much happening at the moment. The gap on the bunch led by Astana/Liquigas still 3.10 as our quintet holds their own against the combined powers of Liquigas and Astana.

The Gracia Orlova race for women is won by Marianne Vos (DSB Bank). Vos won the first three stages. The remaining two stages were won by Ina Teutenberg (High Road) and Alexandra Burchenkova. Today is also the world cup race for women in Berne. Keep checking Dailypeloton for the reports on both races.

Talking about chaser Alexandre Pliuschin he is still hanging between the break and the bunch at about 1.30. Pliuschin is from Moldavia and a former winner of the U23 version of the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Tough place to be for the young rider; but he continues to soldier on hunting the riders in front of him and resisting the peloton's pace.

The Trophee des Grimpeures for women is won again by grandma of cycling the remarkable Jeannie Longo. Longo becomes 50 years old in October. It's the fourth time that Longo has won this race, But the competition was not that tough with the Gracia Orlova and the World Cup in Berne as well on today's schedule. But still a great performance for a women who could be the mother of most of the girls racing.

1416 CEST - Back to Romandie - With 40 km to go the five in front have 2,10 on the bunch still led by Astana and Liquigas. Cofidis and High Road are working in the bunch as well together with Liquigas and Astana, The gap of the five drops quite fast now 1.50. Pliuschin is now caught by the bunch, the gap is coming down fast as the pressure increases.

37 km to go, The gap of the five is now down to 1.30.

1425 CEST - The gap is down to 50 seconds with 33 km to go. In the break Stef Clement attacked his mates as the climbing starts. The peloton follows on the tough 4 km climb in Romandie as High Road sets the pace. High Road will want to make a selection on the climb but not lose their sprinter Cavendish along along the way.

1433 CEST - Clement has 11 seconds on his 4 companions and 52 sec on the bunch. Astana and High Road are setting the pace now. No attacks in the bunch. High Road wants to keep the pack together and control it to the finish for Cavendish; Liquigas will be aiming to do the same for Bennati.

30 km to go and the gap 1.00 - In the meantime Jens Voigt (CSC) attacks out of the bunch. Clement crosses the finish line and enters the finishing circuit; a local lap of 29 km. He has 8 seconds on Frank, Moos, Coppel and Botcharov. Voigt is 55 sec down at the finish - the peloton follows at about 1.05 down

Clement has been caught; we have 5 leaders again. Voigt has got company of Jussi Veikkanen (FDJ) in the chase; they are 28 seconds down on the five in front while the bunch is at 56 seconds.

1440 CEST - 25 km to go, Cavendish is dropped off the back of the bunch. Wiggins, Rabon and Davis are trying to bring him back to the main pack.

The bunch is coming closer 35 seconds behind the break now as Astana and Liquigas are working again. Voigt and Veikkanen are 20seconds down on the break. Voigt gives up his efforts and waits for the bunch. He is caught again. Veikkanen goes on and is trying to bridge up to the break - but Veikkanen is caught too. The bunch is 20 seconds down on Moos, Frank, Botcharov, Clement and Coppel... the quintet is on a short leash and it looks over for the five.

1447 CEST - 18 seconds the gap, with 19 km to go. he group Cavendish is back in the main pack again.

In the break its Coppel who has attacked. Moos, Frank and Clement cant follow. Coppel and Botcharov alone in the lead. Clement caught by the bunch now. In front Frank and Moos have rejoined Coppel and Botcharov. The next one to attack is Moos; Coppel counters and gets a gap. Botcharov bridges across to Coppel. Moos and Frank again off the back of the break - Matthias Frank is also caught by the bunch.

1454 CEST - 15 km to go, Liquigas leads the pace in the bunch for Bennati. In front Moos rejoined the break, three leaders. Coppel, Moos and Botcharov are almost caught. 5 seconds left. Botcharov attacks again but Coppel and Moos are caught by the bunch.

14 km to go, Botcharov now caught too. Gruppo compatto - peloton together. waiting for new attacks.

Attack by an Ag2r rider. He gets company of a Lotto and Rabobank rider. It's Mangel of Ag2r. So we have Mangel, Van Huffel and Flens in the lead. 11 km to go, But the three Laurent Mangel, Wim van Huffel and Rick Flens are caught.

10 km to go, Peloton moving very fast with Liquigas pushing the front... Attack - Nick Nuyens (Cofidis). High Road and Liquigas have lost control of the peloton... no organization at the front. Nuyens gets a gap of 20 seconds.

1505 CEST - 7 km to go, So we have Nuyens in the lead then Kolobnev, then Tiralongo, than Garcia Acosta and than the bunch. Tiralongo bridges up with Kolobnev. It's Pereiro not Acosta. Pereiro bridges up to Tiralongo and Kolobnev too... These three are 8 seconds down on Nuyens - The three are caught by the bunch now.

5 km to go, Nuyens in the lead the bunch at 8 seconds. Gerolsteiner in control at the front of the bunch. 3 sec left for Nuyens. Nuyens is caught - gruppo compatto. It's likely to become a sprint uphill in 3 km.

1510 CEST - High Road in the lead of the bunch 2km to go.

Final km - 400 mt to go - The sprint has started

Daniele Bennati wins!!!!

Andreas Klöden is the final overall G.C. winner of the 2008 Tour de Romandie as he finishes in the group. So Bennati wins the stage ahead of Markus Zberg and Maxim Iglinskiy.

Stage 5 Result (provisional)
1. Bennati
2. M. Zberg
3. Iglinskiy
4. Breschel
5. Schröder
6. Cavendish
7. Wyss
8. Righi
9. Moreno
10. Astarloza

2008 Tour de Romandie - Final Ranking
1. Andreas Klöden
2. Roman Kreuziger
3. Marco Pinotti
4. Denis Menchov
5. Mikel Astarloza
6. Sandy Casar
7. Juan Manuel Garate
8. John Gadret
9. Maxim Iglinskiy
10. José A. Gomez Marchante

With Klöden the Tour de Romandie has the first German winner since the beginning of the race.

Astana looks very strong for the Giro,  if they do get the call up. Liquigas did well in their campaign with Roman Kreuziger in second... and Marco Pinotti can go into the Giro with renewed confidence in himself and team High Road.

This concludes our live coverage of the 62nd Tour de Romandie stage 5. Videos of today and the other stages are available on the Tour de Normandie website in an hour or so. Complete official results and photos here as soon as they are available. Our next live reports will be from the Giro d'Italia starting on May tenth... see you then.

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