Tour de Suisse 2014: Stage 5

Hello and welcome to stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse.

Today is stage 5 from Ossingen to Büren A.D. Aare.

To bring you right up to speed we have a group of three up the road and they currently have a gap of over three minutes. The leaders are: Armee, Marycz and Veuchelen. They broke free of the peloton in the opening stages of today's action and after 30km of racing the gap is at 3'12.

The big news from this morning though is that former Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins is a DNS. The Sky rider crashed on stage four and due to his injuries is heading home. You can read the full story here. He surely needs a miracle to make Team Sky's Tour de France taem now.

Wiggins also has a chest infection. Team Sky refused to clarify if the injuries and withdrawal would affect Wiggins' chances of riding the Tour de France, only saying he hopes to back on the bike in the next 24 hours with the aim of recovering for the British National Time Trial Championships in Monmouthshire on Thursday 26 June.

Wiggins talked about his crash as he returned home from Switzerland.

“Ironically, I was the last man in the peloton, trying to stay out of trouble when it happened. They all slammed on the brakes ahead of me but there was another rider riding full gas who rode straight into the back of me," he said.

“I’ve got quite a lot of swelling on the left-hand side of my right knee. It’s one of those things, I’ve been pretty fortunate this year with crashes. I probably could have started today but it’s best to play it safe and come home now. I really want to try to be ready for the Nationals next Thursday so I didn’t want to jeopardise that for the sake of pushing on and potentially doing more damage."

Heading into the stage Tony Martin leads the GC, the German sitting in yellow ahead of Dumoulin and Sagan.

1 Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team 14:19:41
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Shimano 0:00:06
3 Peter Sagan (Svk) Cannondale 0:00:10
4 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin-Pro Cycling Team 0:00:17
5 Tom Jelte Slagter (Ned) Garmin Sharp 0:00:23
6 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale 0:00:27
7 Ion Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Movistar Team
8 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:28
9 Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:00:29
10 Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Lampre-Merida

A reminder of the riders in the break: Frederik Veuchelen (WGG), Jaroslaw Marycz (CCC) and Sander Armée (LTB)

Frederik Veuchelen is the closest on GC but is over 22 minutes down on Tony Martin.

After 42km of racing the gap to the break is at 4'10.

The break have made it over the first climb of the day,  a fourth category ascent and they have three more climbs in the stage. It's not a totally flat run-in to the finish but the stage certainly favours the sprinters.

The break have made it over the first climb of the day,  a fourth category ascent and they have three more climbs in the stage. It's not a totally flat run-in to the finish but the stage certainly favours the sprinters.

70km into the stage and the gap is now out to 4'40. The sprinters' teams seem to have the situation well under control at the moment.

The bunch are holding the three-man break at 4'30.

Away from Suisse and Movistar have announced their 13 man long list for the Tour de France. Valverde who is racing in Route du Sud will lead the line. Alex Dowsett is set to make his Tour debut too.

Bad news for the boys at Belkin though with the team's title sponsor doing a runner, a year short of when their contract was set to end. Team boss Richard Plugge has already started the search for a new financial backer.

Some good news for Katusha though, with Joaquim Rodriguez slowly finding some form after he quit the Giro d'Italia. He's set to start the Tour de France and you can read an exclusive interview with him, right here.

While over on your Youtube channel you can find a host of new videos. You can subscribe to the channel for free, right here.

Some of the best of our recent video content includes exclusive on-bike footage from the Tour de Suisse. Here's a great example although a painful one for the Belkin rider involved who crashed.

The gap to the leaders is creeping up and is close to five minutes and with 84km covered it's at 4'55.

They've done it. The break has  moved out to 5 minutes with Omega Pharma QuickStep currently on the front of the bunch.

Into the final 80km of racing for the stage, the three-man break at 4'50.

The riders have now climbed three of the four ascents for today. This is shaping up nicely for a bunch sprint.

Out front the three riders have 2'44 on the peloton with 56km to go. The bunch has started to react and has lined out, all under the pressure of QuickStep.

Cannondale have put a rider near the front of the peloton to help QuickStep with the chase.

Back in the bunch Cavendish and Rui Costa ride next to each other but Omega Pharma are still on the front with the lead to the break at 2'39.

Into the final 40km of racing and Lampre and FDJ have moved up, replacing Cavendish's team on the front. Ted King is there for Cannondale and Sagan.

A few Sky riders are also moving up as well.

The gap to the break is at two minutes with 37km to go and the peloton need to mind out that they don't reel in the three leaders too soon and too quickly.

Omega Pharma Quick Step have now moved up and are setting the pace once again.

The peloton have taken another 30 seconds off the break in just 4km of racing.

32km remaining from 184km

32km to go and the gap is at 1:37.

The peloton race through the finish for the first time. Next time they cross the line it will be to decide the winner of stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse. We still have three riders up the road but they're marked men with the gap between them and th peloton at 1:25.

Now into the final 25km and the break is at 1'03. It's just a matter of time and they know the catch is coming. Three tired men leading the race with a hungry looking Omega Pharma setting the pace at the front of the peloton.

Over the top of the final climb, the bunch at 1'00 with BMC briefly helping to set the pace.

It's all Omega on the front but Lampre are moving up to, looking to bring Modolo into the picture and challenge Mark Cavendish.  Sagan is also near the front as well.

The three man break are on their last legs and they only have 35 seconds with 18km to go. The bunch have timed this perfectly.

Tony Martin is at the back of the Omega train as Sky, Astana and IAM all try and move closer to the head of the action.

Serpa leads Rui Costa as we see Lobato fend for himself almost near the front.

There is just 15 seconds between the peloton and the three leaders with 12.6km to go.

Cavendish has Haussler on his wheel it seems but it's going to be a real fight for that position as we go into the final 10km.

Degenkolb is near the back at the field at the moment as we see Matt Goss, who really needs a win, starts to move up.

There are two very tight corners in the last 500m of the stage.

And with 10.4km to go the break has been caught.

On a slight climb at the moment and Tony Martin hits the front with Tom Boonen.

The peloton have spread out over the road but Garmin Sharp take things up with Danielson setting the pace.

Giant are trying to move up but they're finding it hard with Katusha hitting the front with 6km to go. They're working for Kristoff.

But it's Saxo who hit the front with 4km go but it doesnt last long because Tony Martin leads Omega back to the head of the race. Cavendish has the perfect position.

Cancellara is trying to bring Trek's sprinter into the game but at the moment it's Martin who is on top.

Finally Degenkolb and his team make it through with 3km to go. Goss is on Cavendish's wheel.

Katusha on the right, Giant on the left but Cavendish is down to just Renshaw for support it seems.

All up to Renshaw now as he tries to keep Cavendish in contention because Giant have the front of the bunch at the moment. Sagan is trying to find the best wheel but it's taking up a lot of energy.

And there's a huge crash with the line in sight.

Only a few riders are left near the front. Modolo and Sagan are both there.

And Modolo takes the win.

A very tight set of corners as the bunch take a right hand and it looks like an Orica rider fell first but Cavendish also came down.

In the end Sagan found himself on the front but Modolo had the speed to come through and take the win.

Cavendish went over the bars but he's up and back on his bike now and riding over the line. Degenkolb takes third on the stage.

Cavendish went over the bars but he's up and back on his bike now and riding over the line. Degenkolb takes third on the stage.

A BMC rider and Trek rider were also involved in the crash.

1 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida 4:08:06
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Cannondale
3 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Giant-Shimano
4 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha
5 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team
6 Danny Van Poppel (Ned) Trek Factory Racing
7 Jonas Vangenechten (Bel) Lotto Belisol
8 Heinrich Haussler (Aus) IAM Cycling
9 Nino Schurter (Swi) Orica-GreenEdge
10 Jacopo Guarnieri (Ita) Astana Pro Team

Danny van Poppel was the Trek rider. He seemed to come into the corner with too much speed and went into Goss. Not sure how the blame will be handed out but the race organisers needs to take some responsibility for that given that they put those two corners so close to the line.

General classification after stage 5

1 Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team 18:27:47
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Shimano 0:00:06
3 Peter Sagan (Svk) Cannondale 0:00:10
4 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:00:17
5 Tom Jelte Slagter (Ned) Garmin Sharp 0:00:23
6 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale 0:00:27
7 Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00
8 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:28
9 Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:00:29
10 Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Lampre-Merida