Tour of Britain

Frapporti wins, Wiggins second in Tour of Britain stage 5

Photo: courtesy
Wim Dingemanse

Photo: courtesy
Wim Dingemanse

Marco Frapporti (Colnago-CSF Inox) denied Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) a stage win in his home tour after escaping the clutches of the lead group within the final five kilometres of today's Tour of Britain stage to Glastonbury.

With Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Saxo Bank) in that lead group of seven, no one wanted to leave it to a sprint finish, but the target on Wiggins' back meant that he was going to have to come up with something special to ride away on his own.

The British time trial champion was, however, first to try, deciding to hit them with 15km still to go. With his time trialling pedigree well known, he wasn't given his freedom and was quickly brought back.

Daniel Martin (Garmin), once again at the front of the race all day, was next to try making his move with 10km to go. It was then that Frapporti saw his chance and went with the Irishman.

The move worked, but five kilometres later the pair's lead was only a handful of seconds. Then, as the Italian pushed on up a false flat, Martin faltered. It was little surprise after yesterday's efforts, but Frapporti was in no mood to wait.

The Colnago rider - a domestique given his freedom after his team leader Manuel Belletti pulled out - soloed to the line, finishing the stage with a 13 second advantage over Wiggins as the Brit gave his companions the slip and chased alone. On the line it was a further 19 seconds back to Haedo who lead in the fractured group.

The bunch came in a further nine minutes back as HTC-Columbia had a relatively easy day of it today once the initial attacks over Dartmoor had let the break away group form.

The more structured nature of today's stage wasn't a bad thing considering they lost Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) to illness today. Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo) was the other rider to climb off during the stage; and strangely did it while in the lead group.

The serious hills of the 2010 Tour of Britain may now be over, but that's not to say the depleted HTC-Columbia team won't struggle to hold the race together over the next two days.

They're now down to four riders, and two of those are sprinters. Lining up behind leader Michael Albasini (HTC-Columbia) is Saxo Bank's Richie Porte, Vaconsoleil's Borut Bozic and Johnny Hoogerland, and Sky's Greg Henderson.

If the wind blows over the next two days, there is still the chance for the yellow jersey to change hands. Thursday's sixth stage is a relatively flat excursion from King's Lynn to Great Yarmouth


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