ToB: Marco Frapporti beat Bradley Wiggins to the line in Tour of Britain Stage 5

Marco Frapporti beat home favourite Bradley Wiggins after a late break in stage 5 of the Tour of Britain.

Frapporti was in a breakaway group of seven riders before launching his attack along with Dan Martin with 10 kilometres to go. The pair managed to pull out a small gap on the lead group, but after the exertions of yesterday Irishman struggled to stay on the pace.

At 5km to go Martin was dropped, when Frapporti attacked on a small incline, and passed swiftly by the following riders; Wiggins was the only man who could keep up with the Italian using his pursuiting skill to bridge the gap, but he just could catch up with him before the finish.



With Frapporti’s team leader already out of the race the domestique had been given free rein and the win was a boost for him Colnago team and the biggest win of his career. The rest of what had been the lead group struggled to work together

Heading to Glastonbury
As the tour made its way through the legendry music venue of Glastonbury the leaders began to spring attacks. With sprinter Lucas Sebastian Haedo amongst the riders nobody wanted to leave it to a bunch finish. Wiggins was the first to go with 10 km left but the group weren’t going to let him go that easily and he was unable pull out any sort of gap.

Heinrich Haussler had also been in the lead group until but the Cervelo sprinter decided he’d had enough and climbed off his bike with no apparent injuries.

The breakaway group had pulled out such a gap that the crowds had a long wait before the peloton crossed the line. Pim Lighart lead them across the finish over 9 minutes down on the winner Frapporti.


Problems in Columbia
HTC Columbia spent the whole day on the front of the peloton and managed to hold on to Michael Albasini’s leader’s jersey despite losing Tony Martin overnight due to illness. Albasini was lucky to be in the stage, the Swiss rider suffering from dysentery over night. The American team are now down to only four riders, after Marco Pinotti failed to finish yesterday, which could hinder them greatly in the next few stages.

The Ireland National team where whittled down to only three riders after Martyn Irvine didn’t start this morning.

The top five have all stayed in the same position, but with only 1’48 separating them it is still anybody’s guess who will don the yellow jersey in London on Saturday.  Frapporti’s exerts today put him in to the top ten, two minutes ahead of Geraint Thomas.

Tomorrow’s stage heads from King Lynn all the way to Great Yarmouth.