Freire shows clean pair of heels

Cycling Tour de FranceAfter a week that Spain and its cyclists would like to forget, what with dope scandals and crashes, yesterday the Spanish provided an appropriate winner. Oscar Freire, who took the sprint in coruscating style, has a reputation as the amnesiac of the peloton, a man who forgets his race number and commits what for professional cycling is a heinous sin - failing to clean his cycling shoes.

On his bike, however, he is clearly a man with clarity of thought, even though as one of the leading sprinters in the Tour his sanity is naturally a matter for question. Having finished not far behind Robbie McEwen in Wednesday's finish at St-Quentin, yesterday he decided to take the initiative, surging out of the wheels in the final metres and taking his own line up the right at a moment when McEwen et al were focused on the left.

In the yellow jersey Tom Boonen struggled to get on terms, but in taking his second Tour stage win to add to his 2002 victory in Sarrebruck, Freire was untouchable. He is, on the other hand, far from invulnerable. This year he suffered from knee injuries; last year he missed the entire season because of the recurrence of a persistent back problem.

The 31-year-old from Torrelavega has spent much of his career sidelined by his back yet has managed to win three world titles, in 1999, 2002 and 2004, as well as taking a rare Spanish victory in the season's opening one-day Classic, Milan-San Remo. If he had remained injury-free there might have been much more.

The sprints become more terrifying by the day. Yesterday two unidentifiable fast men could just be distinguished leaning on each other like drunken lovers with 200 metres to go and there was a Hand of God crash with five kilometres remaining.

That is the kind of sudden pile-up which occurs for no apparent reason, so divine intervention can be the only explanation. The mountains are reached next Wednesday and, worryingly, the sprinters probably have more to offer.

After four days in which the race went in and out of France's neighbouring countries, yesterday's was the first road-race stage held entirely on home soil, much of it in the Pays d'Auge. This was truly what they call la France profonde, the kind of sumptuous rural splendour that makes Frenchmen misty-eyed and has English estate agents rubbing their hands.

The race meandered through scenery featuring cows chewing the cud, great half-timbered cider barns, mud-walled farmhouses and sheep grazing in orchards of twisted apple trees. There wa a little hint of the sea over the hilltop villages with views of the Normandy landing beaches.

There was a reminder of the glorious past as the race skirted Rouen, birthplace of the five-times Tour winner Jacques Anquetil. Forty years after the heyday of Jacques the most the French can hope for is the odd stage win or, failing that, the kind of heroic but fruitless fight put up by the riders in the smaller teams.

Yesterday it was the turn of Samuel Dumoulin, the smallest rider in the bunch, who broke away with the German Bjorn Schroder early in the stage. Dumoulin had tapped into the World Cup mood by having "France" dyed into his hair but sadly he could not emulate Les Bleus. Just down the road from Pegasus beach, his personal longest day came to an end and the sprinters prepared to do their worst.

There are gastronomic pleasures aplenty in these parts as well as visual ones. This morning the youngest rider in the bunch Marcus Fothen will be given his weight in apple products, while later the race will head for Brittany after two days visiting towns which are famous for producing some of France's smelliest if most evocative cheeses.

Yesterday the riders passed through Pont l'Eveque, where the glutinous local product has a whiff of rotting oysters; this morning features Livarot, where the local cheese has a hint of very old sock.

Belgium's Boonen has now managed two seconds and two fourth places and will be out to show that it is not merely wearing yellow that makes him the biggest fromage in the bunch.

Guardian Service

Stage five (Beauvais - Caen, 225 km), 1 O Freire (Spa/Rabobank), 5hrs, 18mins, 50secs, 2 T Boonen (Bel/Quick-Step), 3 I Isasi (Spa/Euskaltel), 4 D Kopp (Ger/Gerolsteiner), 5 R McEwen (Aus/Davitamon - Lotto), 6 A Ballan (Ita/Lampre), 7 T Hushovd (Nor/Credit Agricole), 8 F Ventoso (Spa/Saunier Duval), 9 E Zabel (Ger/Milram), 10 B Eisel (Aut/Francaise des Jeux), 11 L Paolini (Ita/Liquigas), 12 L Brochard (Fra/Bouygues Telecom), 13 C Moreni (Ita/Cofidis), 14 J Casper (Fra/Cofidis), 15 E Mazzoleni (Ita/T-Mobile), 16 O Pereiro (Spa/Caisse d'Epargne), 17 A Geslin (Fra/Bouygues Telecom), 18 J A Flecha (Spa/Rabobank), 19 A Kloeden (Ger/T-Mobile), 20 C Laurent (Fra/Agritubel), 21 P Sinkewitz (Ger/T-Mobile), 22 M Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan/Milram), 23 G Hincapie (US/Discovery Channel), 24 P Gilbert (Bel/Francaise des Jeux), 25 C Da Cruz (Fra/Francaise des Jeux), 26 P Savoldelli (Ita/Discovery Channel), 27 X Zandio (Spa/Caisse d'Epargne), 28 A Coyot (Fra/Cofidis), 29 N Jalabert (Fra/Phonak), 30 S de Jongh (Ned/Quick-Step).

General classification: 1 T Boonen (Bel/Quick-Step), 25:10:51, 2 M Rogers (Aus/T-Mobile), +13 sec, 3 O Freire (Spa/Rabobank), +17 sec, 4 G Hincapie (US/Discovery Channel), 5 T Hushovd (Nor/Credit Agricole), +19, 6 R McEwen (Aus/Davitamon - Lotto), +24, 7 P Savoldelli (Ita/Discovery Channel), +27, 8 F Landis (US/Phonak), +28, 9 V Karpets (Rus/Caisse d'Epargne), +29, 10 S Gontchar (Ukr/T-Mobile), 11 M Kessler (Ger/T-Mobile), 12 C Evans (Aus/Davitamon - Lotto), +32, 13 C Moreau (Fra/AG2R), 14 D Millar (Brit/Saunier Duval), +33 15 P Sinkewitz (Ger/T-Mobile), +35.

Points classification: 1 Robbie McEwen (Australia/Davitamon-Lotto) 122 2 Tom Boonen (Belgium/Quick-Step) 121 3 Oscar Freire (Spain/Rabobank) 115 4 Daniele Bennati (Italy/Lampre) 86 5 Thor Hushovd (Norway/Credit Agricole) 81 6 Erik Zabel (Germany/Milram) 76 7 Luca Paolini (Italy/Liquigas) 72 8 Bernhard Eisel (Austria/Francaise des Jeux) 69 9 Jimmy Casper (France/Cofidis) 63 10 Francisco Ventoso (Spain/Saunier Duval) 61

Mountain classification: 1 J Pineau (Fra/Bouygues Telecom) 26, 2 D De la Fuente (Spa/Saunier Duval) 17, 3 F Wegmann (Ger/Gerolsteiner) 15, 4 A Hernandez (Spa/Euskaltel) 10, 5 Schroeder (Ger/Milram) 9, 6 U Etxebarria (Ven/Euskaltel) 7, 7 J L Arrieta (Spa/AG2R) 6, 8 C Laurent (Fra/Agritubel) 6, 9 S Dumoulin (France/AG2R) 6, 10 J Voigt (Germany/Team CSC) 6.

Team Classification: 1 Discovery Channel 75:33:55, 2 Team CSC +1 sec. 3 T-Mobile +2, 4. Caisse d'Epargne +7, 5 Gerolsteiner +18, 6 Phonak +26, 7 Lampre +37, 8 Saunier Duval +42, 9 Rabobank, 10 Credit Agricole +43"