Tour contenders kept safe on crash-marred stage 5 of Tour

AMIENS, France – With crashes taking down riders on rain-drenched roads, keeping team leaders safe was the order of the day on Wednesday’s fifth stage of the Tour de France.

By the time Andre Greipel attacked in the last 100 meters to win his second stage of the Tour, and a third in five days for German riders, the last of the day’s seven crashes had taken down 30 riders.

There had been a big spill in stage three, too, involving some 20 riders. But once again, Chris Froome and the other Tour contenders avoided them.

“There was absolutely everything out there today. It rained, which made the roads slippery, and it was also windy,” said Ian Stannard, Froome’s teammate. “That made for a stressful day.”

The yellow jersey group rolled over the line with no change to the leading positions.

German rider Tony Martin, the winner on stage 4, still leads Froome by 12 seconds and Tejay Van Garderen, a promising American rider with strong climbing skills, by 25.

“Everyone thought today was going to be the relaxed day of the tour. But the wind and the rain made it anything but,” Van Garderen said.

American Tyler Farrar (Wenatchee) was knocked down in crash No. 5 of the day, only 50 miles into the 117.5-mile stage.