Greig Leach

The peloton may have avoided the traditional rainy days of England, but it caught up with them on the roads of Belgium. Stage 5 offered up the same roads as the fabled Spring Classic, Paris Roubaix, the only bright side of the rain was that it force ASO (the race organizers) to remove to sections of pave. The sections were underwater, not exactly ideal racing conditions. Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Tony Martin, (OPQS), Rein Taarmae (Cofidis), Simon Clarke and Matthew Hayman (both Orica-GreenEdge) were some of the nine guys who got away from the opening kilometers of the stage. With the uneven cobbles of northern France and Belgium facing the racers, I think they were eager to be done as soon as possible.