Lau and Horridge win Trans-Provence day 5

Nicolas Lau (Cube Action Team) and Emily Horridge (Transition Bikes) won day 5 at the Trans-Provence stage race on Friday. Lau beat current race leader Jérôme Clementz (Cannondale Overmountain / Mavic) by 17 seconds and Fabien Barel (Canyon Factory Enduro Team / Mavic) by 36 seconds. Horridge took 17 seconds out of women's race leader Anka Martin (Juliana Bicycles) and 2:23 from Kelli Emmett (Giant Factory Off-Road Team).

In the overall standings, Clementz retained his lead ahead of Lau and François Bailly-Maitre (BMC Trailcrew). Just four seconds separate Clementz and Lau. In the women's standings, Martin has a comfortable 4:46 lead over Horridge and 6:30 on Emmett.

Day 5 took racers from Valdeblore to Sospel. Just in case riders hadn't had enough of on sight big mountain riding, not enough huge road cols and haven't pushed and dragged their bikes enough along tiny hiking trails; Day 5 was guaranteed to make sure they're full to the brim of all of the above, sating them before the final day and the ride into Menton tomorrow.

There was 66km on today's menu, with an eelvation gain of 2012m, but they did get 3348m of descent with the bus uplift at the end of the day. The traditional three-hour haul at the start of the day, pedaling and pushing to reach the top of Special Stage 17 was as stunning as it was arduous. The day featured some of the best views of the week.

Special Stage 17 and 18 were really one and the same, or at least part of the same; a huge descent down to Lantosque, with a 1200m drop! Split in the middle by a grassy knoll, the top half of the mountain being made up of pine forest covered rock strewn trails with steep switch backs, before hitting stage two which felt more desert like than the top, before hitting a hard to navigate bottom section that is more reminiscent of the North of England than the sunny South of France.

From Lantosque, another big road climb took riders to Special Stage 19. A trail that felt more Mediterranean; rockier and steeper, with gullies and loose rocks to attend to before hitting the final climb of the day - thankfully by bus.

Sadly, there was another injury today with Oliver Munnik taking a high-speed pedal strike that threw him over the bars, smashed his helmet and damaged his shoulder badly, which led to him being helicoptered off. A special mention must be made to competitors who made sure he was being looked after and Trans-Provence mountain staff who made sure he got off the hill safely.

Traditionally we'd now tell you about the old Special Stage, as described by Mark Weir as "above his pay grade", hard to ride, hard to navigate and cleaned by only a few.

This year Special Stage 20 has moved across into a much faster ridge line trail that sweeps back and forth across the hillside before punishing switchbacks pop you back out at the end of the stage and into a river side trail that is equally as challenging as much of the rest of the riding this week.

By the end of five days racing, we're down to four seconds between the top two men and less than six minutes between the top four. But really, tomorrow will be about Lau and Clementz for the top spot though some people will be happy just to arrive at Menton with friends.

Either way it's going to be exciting tomorrow .

Check out the video from day 5.

Full Results

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Elite men day 5
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Nicolas Lau (Cube Action Team)0:27:50
2Jérôme Clementz (Cannondale Overmountain / Mavic)0:00:17
3Fabien Barel (Canyon Factory Enduro Team / Mavic)0:00:36
4François Bailly-Maitre (BMC Trailcrew)0:01:26
5Anton Cooper (Cannondale Factory Racing)0:02:12
6Geoff Kabush (Scott-3Rox Racing)0:02:13
7Jamie Nicoll (Santa Cruz Bicycles)0:02:15
8Florian Golay (BMC Trailcrew)0:02:16
9Maxi Dickerhoff (Canyon Factory Enduro Team)0:02:57
10Ben Cruz (Cannondale Overmountain / WTB)0:02:58
11Mark Weir (Cannondale Overmountain / WTB)0:03:06
12Nico Prudencio (Team Giant Chile)0:03:38
13Alex Stock (Kona)0:03:59
14Guillaume Farin (BMC Trailcrew)0:04:37
15Manuel Fumic (Cannondale Factory Racing)0:05:13
16Adam Craig (Giant Factory Off-Road Team)0:15:03
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Elite women day 5
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Emily Horridge (Transition Bikes)0:35:17
2Anka Martin (Juliana Bicycles)0:00:17
3Kelli Emmett (Giant Factory Off-Road Team)0:02:23
4Pauline Dieffenthaler (Cannondale / Mavic)0:07:11
5Nadine Sapin (la Roue Libre/Scott Contessa)0:07:49
6Mary-Anne Hunter (Juliana Bicycles)0:12:29
7Catherine West0:23:56
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Amateur men day 5
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Chris Ball0:30:15
2Stu Thomson (MTB Cut / Orange)0:01:08
3Nick Gibson0:01:11
4Afonso Ferreira0:02:01
5Tilmann Schwab0:02:47
6Simo Sohkanen0:02:51
7Matt Patterson0:03:30
8Mikko Kupiainen0:03:47
9Paul Smail0:03:55
10Tom Haukom0:04:11
11Joe Bowman0:04:20
12Gaute Reitan0:05:31
13Ole Christian Fagerli0:05:38
14Jon Cancellier (SRAM)0:05:46
15Will Ockelton (Santa Cruz Bicycles)0:05:49
16Johannes Riebl (Orbea Enduro Crew)0:05:50
17Øyvind Aas0:05:57
18Kevin Moran0:06:15
19Jeff Calam0:07:26
20Paul Angus0:07:46
21Andy Waterman0:07:55
22Mickey Fan0:08:22
23Tim Kelton0:08:39
24Tony Gjessvag0:08:40
25Jon Stevens0:09:37
26Ben Macinnis0:12:01
27Lester Perry0:12:24
28Guti Martin0:16:12
29Lee Jordan0:18:44
30Todd Seplavy0:21:13
31Paul Tiffin0:22:39
32Helmar Jungfer0:37:50
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Masters men day 5
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Sven Martin (Santa Cruz Bicycles)0:31:42
2François Dola (la Roue Libre)0:00:09
3Rodrigo Cabello0:03:11
4Raphael Imbs (TannenBike)0:03:58
5Othmar Kuenzli0:04:14
6Jonny Waghorn0:05:11
7Luke Harrison0:07:19
8Jörg Schueller0:08:20
9Seb Ramsay0:09:13
10Björn Becker0:11:07
11Tomas Ljungdahl0:14:05
12Plons Racing0:18:51
13Cooper Fowler0:23:54
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Elite men general classification after day 5
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Jérôme Clementz (Cannondale Overmountain / Mavic)2:16:43
2Nicolas Lau (Cube Action Team)0:00:04
3François Bailly-Maitre (BMC Trailcrew)0:05:33
4Fabien Barel (Canyon Factory Enduro Team / Mavic)0:05:42
5Geoff Kabush (Scott-3Rox Racing)0:06:51
6Jamie Nicoll (Santa Cruz Bicycles)0:07:27
7Anton Cooper (Cannondale Factory Racing)0:10:10
8Florian Golay (BMC Trailcrew)Row 7 - Cell 2
9Mark Weir (Cannondale Overmountain / WTB)0:11:38
10Ben Cruz (Cannondale Overmountain / WTB)0:12:28
11Manuel Fumic (Cannondale Factory Racing)0:14:10
12Alex Stock (Kona)0:16:28
13Maxi Dickerhoff (Canyon Factory Enduro Team)0:16:58
14Nico Prudencio (Team Giant Chile)0:20:36
15Guillaume Farin (BMC Trailcrew)0:21:33
16Adam Craig (Giant Factory Off-Road Team)0:27:04
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Elite women general classification after day 5
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Anka Martin (Juliana Bicycles)2:51:45
2Emily Horridge (Transition Bikes)0:04:46
3Kelli Emmett (Giant Factory Off-Road Team)0:06:30
4Pauline Dieffenthaler (Cannondale / Mavic)0:19:40
5Nadine Sapin (la Roue Libre/Scott Contessa)0:34:46
6Mary-Anne Hunter (Juliana Bicycles)0:52:29
7Catherine West1:42:18
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Amateur men general classification after day 5
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Chris Ball2:27:10
2Stu Thomson (MTB Cut / Orange)0:09:31
3Mikko Kupiainen0:16:26
4Tom Haukom0:16:52
5Matt Patterson0:17:57
6Tilmann Schwab0:18:52
7Paul Smail0:19:04
8Ole Christian Fagerli0:19:17
9Afonso Ferreira0:19:20
10Simo Sohkanen0:20:54
11Joe Bowman0:21:18
12Paul Angus0:23:38
13Øyvind Aas0:25:35
14Kevin Moran0:27:05
15Gaute Reitan0:27:59
16Jon Cancellier (SRAM)0:29:21
17Will Ockelton (Santa Cruz Bicycles)0:30:12
18Mickey Fan0:34:05
19Jon Stevens0:36:45
20Tim Kelton0:37:15
21Jeff Calam0:39:24
22Nick Gibson0:45:45
23Lester Perry0:46:47
24Tony Gjessvag0:47:10
25Andy Waterman0:52:41
26Johannes Riebl (Orbea Enduro Crew)0:58:45
27Ben Macinnis1:08:52
28Guti Martin1:12:35
29Lee Jordan1:15:38
30Helmar Jungfer1:31:58
31Todd Seplavy1:36:11
32Paul Tiffin1:36:55
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Masters men general classification after day 5
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Sven Martin (Santa Cruz Bicycles)2:36:37
2François Dola (la Roue Libre)0:01:51
3Othmar Kuenzli0:15:47
4Jonny Waghorn0:17:49
5Raphael Imbs (TannenBike)0:18:54
6Seb Ramsay0:21:45
7Rodrigo Cabello0:24:39
8Plons Racing0:35:39
9Björn Becker0:40:47
10Jörg Schueller0:42:48
11Tomas Ljungdahl0:52:18
12Luke Harrison0:55:09
13Cooper Fowler1:41:23

 

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