TOUR DE FRANCE : Blijlevens Wins Fifth Stage as Gotti Retains Overall Lead

Jeroen Blijlevens of the Netherlands won the fifth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday as Ivan Gotti of Italy held the overall lead for a second day.

Frenchman Laurent Jalabert, who lost the lead and 50 seconds to Gotti on Wednesday after a fall, started to come back by gaining six bonus seconds in intermediate sprints.

Jalabert remained eighth, but was only 34 seconds off the lead after the longest stage of this year’s Tour, 162 miles, from Fecamp.

Blijlevens edged ahead of Slovakian Jan Svorada and German Erik Zabel at the finish with Mario Cipollini of Italy, the winner of two stages, and Djamolidine Abdoujaparov of Uzbekistan, also trailing.

Gotti stayed ahead of his teammate Bjarne Riis of Denmark by a second in the overall standings with little change as the riders prepare to enter Belgium today.

“When I was growing up, I saw in the yellow jersey Hinault, Fignon, LeMond. I never imagined Ivan Gotti would wear it,” Gotti said.

Miguel Indurain of Spain, seeking his fifth consecutive victory in the Tour, Tony Rominger of Switzerland and Yevgeny Berzin of Russia all finished in the same time and lost nothing in the overall standings to Gotti.