63rd Tour de Romandie - Stage 5 
Oscar Freire doubles in Geneva - Tyler Farrar and Koldo Fernandez top final stage podium... Czech Republic's Roman Krueziger Wins 2009 Tour of Romandie

By Chris Graetz

5/03 - Stage 5: Aubonne - Genève 150.5 km
The fifth and final stage of the 2009 Tour de Romandie came down not so surprising sprint finish with three time world champion Oscar Freire leading from 100 meters to raise his arms in triumph for the second time in six days. The Rabobank rider's team pulled off a perfect leadout as they dueled with a strong performance by the Garmins/Slipstream team to deliver Tyler Farrar into the final fray for glory. Farar didn't disappoint taking a close second to the Spanish veteran with Koldo Fernandez of Euskaltel third. Belgians Phillipe Gilbert (Silence/Lotto)and Nico Sijmens (Cofidis) filled out the top 5.

The sprint was out of a lead group of 88 riders that survived the final Cat 1 climb with the rest of the peloton finishing in to gruppos one at 6:40 and the laughing group with sprinters Juan Jose Haedo and Mark Cavendish finishing at 12:25.

Roman Krueziger was all assured of the yellow jersey in his first win since the Tour of Switzerland last year. His team did what they needed to do to protect his advantage and it was never a threatened.

Stage 5 Profile Aubonne - Genève 150.5 km

Despite a lot of attacks early on in the stage, one finally stuck about 50 km into the stage consisting of a group of 4 riders got away from the peloton. Frenchman David Moncoutie (Cofidis), Swiss Michael Schar (Astana), German Paul Voss (Milram) and Frenchman Christophe Le Mevel (FDF). At one stage, the break was hovering at over 2 minutes, but slowly and steadily it was brought back down.

40 km from the finish, the gap was 1 minute and 15 seconds. Cavendish was dropped with some Columbia/Highroad team-mates and from there, Rabobank and Garmin put the pedal to the metal to isolate Cavendish and control the race so Freire and Farrar could battle it out.

Due to that pace, the four leaders were back in the peloton with 31km to go, and Cavendish was struggling to get back on despite his team doing all they could to bring him back in time for the sprint; but try as they might the strength and speed was in the lead group that finished fast at 43 km/h on the day. The lack of racing was evident in Cavendish,  this week the Manxman has put in a hard 679 km of training which should prepare hime for the upcoming Giro d’Italia where he should snatch a couple of stage wins.

There were some small attacks made from this point onwards but with the pace Rabobank and Garmin were traveling, none were succeeded.  4km from the finish, Christophe Kern (Cofidis) tried his luck but was contained immediately. It was evident that this was going to go down to a sprint finish and it wasn’t much of a sprint finish with Freire cruising to his second victory this year grabbing both in the best part of 4 days.

As expected, the GC didn’t change. Czech Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) successfully held onto his yellow jersey from Russian Vladimir Karpets (Katusha) and Estonian Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) filling out the podium. Caisse d’Espargne duo Alejandro Valverde and Rigoberto Uran rounding out the top 5. (Mark the name of the young Columbian in your Giro programs to watch in the climbing stages, he put in a fine performance this week.)

Similarly, the mountains classification and pink jersey was won by Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank) who had a 4 point advantage over Mathieu Sprick (Bouygues Telekom) heading into today’ stage. Ten Dam attacked the first climb with the peloton to secure a handy 4 points and Sprick didn’t figure in so the classification was wrapped up with Ten Dam having an 8 point advantage knowing that Sprick would never be allowed to get away. Ten Dam finished on 36 points and Sprick (28 points). The big mover in that classification was David Moncoutie who was sitting in 9th coming into the stage, but thanks to a win in the last mountain pass of the tour, he catapulted himself up to third position (26 points). Ricardo Serrano (Fuji) and Florent Brard (Cofidis) (20 points) rounded out the top 5.

In the sprint classification, Gregory Rast (Astana) and Florent Brard were on equal points. The two riders were locked in battle for the greeen jerey, but Rast got the better of Brard in the sprint at Nyon, claiming second picking up 3 points with Brard empty. Rast finished 3 points ahead of Brard (12 points) and Jerome Coppel (FDJ) managed to keep third position (9 points) and Sandy Casar (FDJ) fourth (7 points.) Philippe Gilbert (Silence Lotto) climbed into the top 5 thanks to his win at the sprint at Nyon.

The tour, however, belonged to Roman Kreuziger who has shown the cycling world he has the legs and the ability to threaten the overall in July’s Tour de France. He will now have a rest, and prepare for the July race. The young Czech will start with a welle served feeling of confidence. He made it look too easy this week.

Stage 5 Results
Aubonne - Genève
150.5 km -  3:29:49 - 43.038 km/h
1 81 Esp Freire Gomez Oscar Rab Esp 3h29'49
2  *Farrar Tyler Grm Usa 3h29'49" ' '
3  Fernandez De Larrea Koldo Eus Esp 3h29'49" ' '
4  Gilbert Philippe Sil Bel 3h29'49" ' '
5  Sijmens Nico Cof Bel 3h29'49" ' '
6   *Martin Tony Thr Ger 3h29'49" ' '
7  Zberg Markus Bmc Sui 3h29'49" ' '
8  Camano Ortuzar Iker Fuj Esp 3h29'49" ' '
9  Lang Sebastian Sil Ger 3h29'49" ' '
10  Voigt Jens Sax Ger 3h29'49" ' '
11  *Buts Vitaliy Lam Ukr 3h29'49" ' '
12  Rohregger Thomas Mrm Aut 3h29'49" ' '
13   *Wyss Marcel Ctt Sui 3h29'49" ' '
14  *Bonnafond Guillaume Alm Fra 3h29'49" ' '
15  Serrano Gonzalez Ricardo Fuj Esp 3h29'49" ' '
16  Arrieta Lujambio José-Luis Alm Esp 3h29'49" ' '7

General Classification After Stage 5 (Final)
579.4 km - 14:20:14 - 40.404 km/h
1  *Kreuziger Roman Liquigas Czech Republic 14h20'14" 
2   Karpets Vladimir Katusha Russia 14h20'32" 18"
3 1 *Taaramae Rein Cofidis  Estonia  14h20'39" 25"
4  Valverde Belmonte Alejandro  Caisse d'Epargne Spain 14h21'00" 46"
5  *Uran Rigoberto Caisse d'Epargne Columbia14h21'02" 48"
6  Bak Lars Ytting Saxo Bank  Denmark 14h21'15" 01'01"
7 Evans Cadel Sil Australia  14h21'21" 01'07"
8 *Martin Tony Columbia/Highroad Germany 14h21'22" 01'08"
9  Kessiakoff Fredrik Fuji/Servetto  Sweden 14h21'30" 01'16"
10  Siutsou Konstantin Columbia/Highroad Belarus 14h21'35" 01'21"
11  Menchov Denis Rabobank  Russia 14h21'39" 01'25"
12  *Frank Mathias BMC Racing Switzerland 14h21'40" 01'26"
13  *Di Grégorio Rémy Francaise des Jeux  France 14h21'43" 01'29"
14  Gilbert Philippe Silence/Lotto Belgium
15  Losada Alguacil Alberto Caisse d'Epargne Spain 14h21'45" 01'31"
Complete Results

63rd Edition Tour de Romandie Stages & Links
Switzerland - UCI ProTour
4/28 - Prologue: Lausanne  3.1 km
4/29 - Stage 1: Montreux - Fribourg  176.2 km  176.2 km
4/30 - Stage 2: La Chaux-de-Fonds - La Chaux-de-Fonds 161.5 km
5/01 - Stage 3: Yverdon-les-Bains  14.8 km TTT
5/02 - Stage 4: Estavayer-les-lacs - Sainte-Croix  157.5 km
5/03 - Stage 5: Aubonne - Genève  150.5 km
Total distance: 663.6 km
Race Website
Main Sponsor: Credit Agricole Banking

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