Francisco Ventoso times it to perfection to win Stage 5

Movistar’s Francisco Ventoso beat the top sprinters at this year’s Tour Down Under to take his team’s debut victory.

The Spaniard pipped stage 3 winner Michael Matthews and GC contender Matt Goss across the line in Willunga. Ventoso managed to time his attack to perfection with Matthews chasing down on him; the Rabobank rider lost out on victory by inches. This is the first year Movistar join the peloton as a reincarnation of the Caisse D’Epargne team. The victory puts them on the top of the team leader board 11 seconds ahead of Vacansoleil-DCM and Ag2R La Mondiale.


Lopez goes Down
It was mixed emotions for the team as Movistar rider David Lopez went down after hitting an already down Jack Bobridge. Goss’ third place gave him a boost in the general classification and moves him within eight seconds of leader Cameron Meyer.

Early in the day there were several attacks before eight riders finally made one stick and almost went the distance. Michael Hepburn (UniSA-Australia), Tanel Kangert (Astana), Davide Vigano (LEOpard-Trek), John Murphy (BMC Racing), Joost Van Leijin (Vacansoleil), Juan Horrach and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) and Sebastian Haedo (Saxo Bank) were the eight who made it away.

Breakaway Reeled In
Despite not being a big threat to the GC the peloton didn’t let them get to far away; only managing to pull out just over a two-minute gap. Vigano and Murphy stayed out the longest taking most of the points in the intermediate sprints along the way. After this the Spaniard was suddenly very interesting to the peloton as he became the Ochre jersey leader on the road. The pair and their compatriots were eventually caught on the last climb of the day.

It wasn’t long before another attack was launched with a group of seven made use of a lull in the group. This one included the seven times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who has had a very quite race. They didn’t get too far before they were reeled back and the big teams began their work on the front.

Roberts Wins KOM
Luke Roberts became the first jersey winner of the 2011 tour when he made sure the King of the Mountains was not coming off his shoulders. Roberts has held the jersey since the race started and taking maximum points on the second time over Old Willunga Hill.

Goss will be looking to use to the full 16 seconds of time bonuses tomorrow to overhaul Meyer for the Ochre jersey. He won’t be let away easily and the 90 kilometres around Adelaide will be an all out fight between the two.