From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

Every day that we watch the Tour de France, a small group always breaks ahead of the big pack, but they always get caught. Why do they do that, if they always get caught? And why do they always get caught?

Response:

In spite of the almost certainty the breakaway group will be hunted down and swept away, they earn valuable points through designated sprint zones. While most of us watch the race focused on the yellow jersey, there are other competitions inside the race.

And the breakaway group doesn’t always get caught. On rare occasions, the escape group manages to hold the lead, hoping for a miscalculation on the part of the peleton (the big pack).

The peleton, on the other hand, attempts to manage the pace of the race to eventually catch the escape. The swarm of riders in the big group creates an enormous wind tunnel, so riders are able to conserve more of their energy while traveling at greater speed than the breakaway group. The breakaway group, usually five to seven riders, creates a smaller slipstream, with each rider required to take a turn on the front, breaking the wind for the riders behind. Riding single file, constantly switching the lead, the escapees consume more energy, ultimately tiring and getting caught. Near the end, the escape group may lose its members one by one as they exhaust themselves.

The veteran sprinters will almost never be involved in a breakaway, knowing the peleton will manage the race tempo. These vets will conserve their energy for the final sprint to the finish.

Stage Five. What we thought would be another sprinter’s battle between Boonen (BEL-QSI) and McEwan (AUS-DVL) was spoiled by Oscar Freire (ESP-RAB) from Team Rabobank. As the sprinters accelerated from the pack Freire moved quietly up the right side without attracting attention and slipped by frontrunners, beating them to the finish.

In the overall standings, Hincapie (USA-DSC) dropped behind Freire on points, now 17 seconds behind the lead. All this will change, however, when we get to the time trial on Saturday, July 8 (Stage 7). It’s a long time trial, 52km, favoring the GC (General Classification) contenders.

Overall Standings after Stage Five

1-BOONEN, Tom -BEL-QSI -25hrs 10min 51sec

2-ROGERS, Michael -AUS-TMO –+13sec

3-FREIRE, Oscar -ESP-RAB –+17sec

4-HINCAPIE, George -USA-DSC –+17sec

5-HUSHOVD, Thor -NOR-C.A –+19sec

6-MC EWEN, Robbie -AUS-DVL –+24sec

7-SAVOLDELLI, Paolo -ITA-DSC –+27sec

8-LANDIS, Floyd -USA-PHO –+28sec

9-KARPETS, Vladimir -RUS-CEI –+29sec

10-HONCHAR, Serhiy -UKR-TMO –+29sec