Sports News: 2013

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Lions 2013: Alun-Wyn Jones to captain British and Irish Lions in decider against Australia as Brian O'Driscoll left out

Roberts missed the first two Tests with a hamstring problem but returns to partner Jonathan Davies. England lock Geoff Parling retains his place in the staring XV, while Manu Tuilagi comes onto the bench for the first time.

O'Driscoll, 34, was seen as the likely replacement for Warburton as he has led sides at international level on a world-record 84 occasions - in 83 of his 125 Tests for Ireland, plus the first Lions Test in New Zealand in 2005.

The decision to axe O'Driscoll will be regarded as the biggest call of Gatland's coaching career.

"I told him (O'Driscoll) this morning and obviously he was disappointed," said Gatland.

"But he appreciated the fact he was spoken to before the announcement. It is the first time anyone has had that conversation with him (about being dropped) within 15 years of rugby. But he will still be very important to us in terms of leadership.

"There are always close calls. For quite a few of the positions there have been a few people coming back from injury. It was quite a lively selection meeting we had with coaches last night. It was tough. There's been a lot of competition in this squad. But the changes are going to strengthen the team.

"Jamie Roberts has been given the nod because of that partnership in the midfield. It wasn't about picking a captain but the best team. Then the question was who would do the best job once we'd picked the team.

"Alun just leads from the front. He was one of the first names on the sheet in the first Test and he will lead by example. He is an important part of the engine room that needs to fire for us on Saturday."

Jones's appointment means he will face a pre-match handshake and coin toss with Wallabies captain James Horwill, who had been cited for stamping on the Wales lock in the first Test - but was then twice cleared of the offence.

Jones, who has only captained Wales once before, and never the Lions, said: "I'm selected for the way that I play and not for the way I lead. To be selected like this in the final Test is a bit of a special moment for me but obviously there's a job to do.

"I've done quite a bit of captaincy for the Ospreys and once for Wales in the Six Nations. I've also been fortunate enough to have been led by some great captains and I will use that."

O'Driscoll, Jamie Heaslip and Ben Youngs are all dropped completely from the match-day 23, with Conor Murray retaining his place on the bench along with Owen Farrell.

England hooker Tom Youngs drops to the bench along with his national team-mate Mako Vunipola, while Scotland lock Richie Gray and Wales flanker Justin Tipuric are promoted to a much-changed bench.

Lions XV: L Halfpenny (Wales); T Bowe (Ireland), J Davies (Wales), J Roberts (Wales), G North (Wales); J Sexton (Ireland), M Phillips (Wales); A Corbisiero (England), R Hibbard (Wales), A Jones (Wales), A-W Jones (Wales, capt), G Parling (England), D Lydiate (Wales), S O'Brien (Ireland), Toby Faletau (Wales).

Replacements: T Youngs (England), M Vunipola (England), D Cole (England), R Gray (Scotland), J Tipuric (Wales), C Murray (Ireland), O Farrell (England), Manu Tuilagi (England).

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Lions 2013: I was in agony in every way when I felt my hamstring go, says Sam Warburton

Did I know my tour was over immediately? You never know because sometimes you do these things and they feel more painful than they actually are. I thought for a moment, "maybe it is a one or two-weeker and I can rush back" but if I am honest I always thought deep down that I was struggling.

I’ve seen guys with grade-one tears to their hamstring walking about reasonably comfortably afterwards, and I was really struggling to walk. The hamstring is a complex muscle and often needs more time to recover.

I had a scan on Sunday and then received the results on Monday. It was conclusive. I was out. It was sad news but by then I had prepared myself for that.

The doctors and management asked me when I wanted to release the news, and I said, “straight away”. It was going to be pretty hard to hide with me walking around on crutches.

Initially, of course, there was much despondency. But I’ve become much more philosophical after much reflection over the last couple of days. If, at the start of the season someone had told me I would start two Lions Tests I would have bitten their arm off.

I realise that I am very fortunate. I do not feel as if it is the end of the world now. I’ll still be there for the boys on Saturday and, hopefully when we win, I will be there to celebrate with them. It could be worse.

And I say that even with the news after the game on Saturday that my beloved Shetland sheepdog, Gus (named after Gus Poyet, the former Spurs footballer), died last week. He died on Thursday, but my parents didn’t tell me until after the game because they didn’t want to distract me. They know how much he meant to me. My twin brother, Ben, was trying to keep him going at home until I got back, but sadly that didn’t happen.

This situation this week is similar to the 2011 World Cup in many ways, where I couldn’t play in the third-place play-off against Australia because of my ban. I was still in the camp then, but couldn’t play. Although I have to say this is obviously on a much grander scale. This is like a World Cup final in Sydney now on Saturday.

So how did we lose that Test in Melbourne? I thought the first 20 minutes were crucial. They went really well for us, but we didn’t get the points we should have. We had the Australians under real pressure. We had that 13-man line-out which they defended really well to be fair. If that had come off, it might have been a very different game.

But then we made some mistakes and they got the momentum. After that it was pretty much tit-for-tat with us doing a lot of defending.

My injury is even more disappointing because I felt that I had a good game. I was really happy with my performance. For my first game of the tour I had not played for seven weeks, and I always need game time to get better and better. I felt that throughout my tour that my game was improving. And on Saturday I felt I was back to where I should be.

I said to myself before the tour that I wouldn’t read any press and I hadn’t done until this week when my dad sent me some comments that Sir Clive Woodward had made about my performance in Melbourne. He said it was, “the most outstanding performance I have ever seen from a Lion”.

Wow. I couldn’t believe that. That’s one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever been paid.

Sir Clive also talked about us being in Noosa, up on the Sunshine Coast this week. I stayed in Melbourne for all of Sunday with Eanna Falvey, one of the team’s doctors, but then flew up here on Monday. I think it is a really good idea to be here.

By now everyone knows the calls and their roles. The team run before the second Test only lasted 12 minutes, and it was the sharpest one we have had. It is all about freshening the players both physically and mentally. It is good for everyone to get away from the spotlight.

I even had a great time at the zoo on Tuesday, with Tommy Bowe, Mike Phillips, Ian Evans, Adam Jones, Jon Sexton and Jon Davies, my first real trip out on the tour.

Everyone is relaxed. But everyone will be ready for Saturday, mark my words.

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Wimbledon 2013: Greg Rusedski explains where men's quarter-final ties could be won or lost

That means using more spin to control its flight, and sacrificing power in the process. But Novak’s slice is not his strength. If he goes to that play, he is getting away from his own game in order to respond to his opponent, which is never recommended.

Djokovic v Berdych

26 Age 27

Belgrade Born Valasske Mezirici

6ft 2in Height 6ft 5in

Right-handed Plays Right-handed

1 World ranking 6

33/5 Year to date won/lost 31/12

3 Year to date titles 0

502/128 Career won/lost 407/226

37 Career titles 8

£33.11m Prize money £9.54m

13 Head to head 2

Lukasz Kubot (Poland) v Jerzy Janowicz (Poland, 24)

In this battle of the Poles, Lukasz Kubot is the doubles specialist who will be rushing forward at every opportunity, whereas Jerzy Janowicz is the unknown quantity among the last eight. At 22 he is young and hugely talented. I watched every point of his opening-round match against Kyle Edmund, and I was wondering how this guy is not already in the top 10.

As in three of the four matches, there is a power gap between the two players. At 6ft 8in, Janowicz has long levers, and he takes an uninhibited swing at his forehand. He also leads the “fastest serve” charts with a 140mph bomb.

What makes him especially dangerous is the way he can throw in the drop-shot off both sides. Playing against him, you naturally find yourself retreating towards the back fence because of the weight of the shots coming towards you. And then he plays the ball short – which he does with good disguise - and you have 20 yards to make up.

All I can suggest is that Kubot uses the body serve a lot - with Janowicz’s wingspan, he is very dangerous off the wide returns. And look out for some predictable patterns from his opponent. When Janowicz is pushed back into his forehand corner, he usually smashes a fierce, flat cross-court forehand in return.

Kubot v Janowicz

31 Age 22

Boleslawiec Born Lodz

6ft 3in Height 6ft 8in

Right-handed Plays Right-handed

130 World ranking 22

5/11 Year to date won/lost 15/12

0 Year to date titles 0

84/106 Career won/lost 35/28

0 Career titles 0

£2.09m Prize money £764,000

0 Head to head 0

Fernando Verdasco (Spain) v Andy Murray (GB, 2)

Oddly enough, Andy Murray does not need to change the gameplan he would usually be digging out of the cupboard at this stage of the tournament for a match against Rafael Nadal. Verdasco is another Spanish left-hander, and his game has come back since he switched rackets to Babolat, the same company that Rafa uses.

We outlined some of Murray’s best tactics against Nadal before the tournament: the wide cross-court backhand to drag him out to his forehand side, which opens up the court for the down-the-line backhand winner. That will work against Verdasco too.

Another good option is the short knifing cross-court slice. The Spanish players all like to camp out in their backhand corner on the right-hand side (as they see it) of the baseline. So it is good to bring him forward and then push him back again, so that you get him moving diagonally up and down the court. It is not a pattern of movement that they often have to use.

As a result, they do not like it. The length of the slice is important, though: you do not want it too short otherwise you bring Verdasco to the net. And he plays a bit of doubles so he can volley well, too.

Verdasco v Murray

29 Age 26

Madrid Born Dunblane

6ft 2in Height 6ft 3in

Left-handed Plays Right-handed

54 World ranking 2

9/12 Year to date won/lost 27/5

0 Year to date titles 3

359/253 Career won/lost 406/128

5 Career titles 27

£6.31m Prize money £18.02m

1 Head to head 8

David Ferrer (Spain, 4) v Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina, 8)

You could see this as a fight between a heavyweight boxer and a lighter, faster martial arts specialist. David Ferrer will try to get in and out, break up the rhythm, keep Juan Martin del Potro guessing. Because if he starts getting on the wrong end of those hammer blows he will wind up being crushed.

Del Potro has excellent lateral movement – huge strides that eat up the turf — and really crunches the ball off both wings. This year, we have seen him slice more off the backhand side, but I would not recommend that today because Ferrer is so low to the ground; the Spaniard would be able to get under the ball, apply topspin and take the initiative in the rally.

The key to Del Potro’s further progress will lie in his angles. When he won the US Open in 2009, he was mixing up those ferocious deep drives with shorter angled shots that really opened up the court. That gave him a bit more variation and made his opponents work so much harder.

It is strange that Del Potro has not been back to a grand slam semi-final since he won that title in New York, but I fancy him to go through today.

Ferrer v Del Potro

31 Age 24

Javea Born Tandil

5ft 9in Height 6ft 6in

Right-handed Plays Right-handed

4 World ranking 8

37/11 Year to date won/lost 20/8

2 Year to date titles 1

525/257 Career won/lost 274/115

20 Career titles 14

£12.87m Prize money £7.96m

6 Head to head 2

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Lions 2013: Alun-Wyn Jones to captain British and Irish Lions in Sydney decider as Brian O'Driscoll dropped

The decision to axe O'Driscoll will be regarded as the biggest call of Gatland's coaching career.

"I told him (O'Driscoll) this morning and obviously he was disappointed," said Gatland.

"I've done quite a bit of captaincy for the Ospreys and once for Wales in the Six Nations. I've also been fortunate enough to have been led by some great captains and I will use that."

O'Driscoll, Jamie Heaslip and Ben Youngs are all dropped completely from the match-day 23, with Conor Murray retaining his place on the bench along with Owen Farrell.

England hooker Tom Youngs drops to the bench along with his national team-mate Mako Vunipola, while Scotland lock Richie Gray and Wales flanker Justin Tipuric are promoted to a much-changed bench.

Replacements: T Youngs (England), M Vunipola (England), D Cole (England), R Gray (Scotland), J Tipuric (Wales), C Murray (Ireland), O Farrell (England), Manu Tuilagi (England).

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Wimbledon 2013: three cheers for the 'little people' as they have their day on court

From the comfort of the sofa, Wimbledon is a white linen tablecloth fresh out of the box. All crisp and clean and lovely, laid by someone who knows about cutlery, and topped off with goblets of vintage John McEnroe.

It is a competition where blazered officials of a certain age stand for hours in deeply uncomfortable poses that really must hurt their backs and young twenty-year-olds with plaited ponytails and smart bandanas hit groundstrokes fast and fierce. It marks both the year’s full turn and the annual run on special offer Pimm’s in the local Co-op.

But watching Laura Robson play Kaia Kanepi on Monday afternoon reminded you too, what a ruthlessly lonely game tennis is. With 11,430 spectators rising around her on Court No?1, cameras everywhere, line judges behind and an umpire above, Robson was surrounded by people, staring at every nose scratch and T-shirt tug, but was essentially alone. A 19-year-old isolated within the white lines that mark out the court. It is a strange game.

Ball boys and girls hand out green and pink official towels on demand, but never communicate. The players sit yards apart, but never look at each other. Even in boxing, that more violent gladiatorial sport, you get a trainer in the corner to whisper in your ear, wipe the sweat from your brow and the blood from your nose – the best tennis players get is a thumbs up from a bored-looking coach in expensive sunglasses.

Every tie-break is a penalty shoot-out. Every oooh and scream of your name wonderful if you are winning, but demoralising when you are losing, grinding away at your self respect – thousands of strangers collectively raising their eyebrows to say come on now, put some effort in. In the few hours on court, the crowd have studied you, commented extensively on your muscularity and general demeanour, and feel they have got to know you pretty well.

You on the other hand must feel nothing but the desire to win.

In May Ernests Gulbis, the Latvian world No?39, complained to L’Equipe that tennis players generally, and especially Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, are too boring.

The more relevant point would seem to be how do they hold it all together? How have they not gone off the rails? In the insane world that they move in, how do they retain some sense of perspective, some normality?

They get paid ridiculously well for their efforts – the Wimbledon prize money pot increased by 40 per cent this year compared to 2012 – and the top four players have become commodities. They are ambassadors for this and that, their every move or utterance mapped on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or their own websites.

According to Forbes, Federer earned $9.3?million in prize money between July 2011 and July 2012 and an estimated $45?million from sponsors, exhibitions and appearance fees. His sponsors include Nike, Credit Suisse, Mercedes-Benz, Gillette, Rolex, Wilson, Lindt chocolate, Jura, Moet and Chandon and Netjets. Does Roger ever look around him and feel like screaming – is all this really for me?

If he does, he does it quietly. Instead he and Nadal and Djokovic and Murray are unfailingly polite, shaking their opponents’ hands, congratulating each other on their successes, forever taking the positives and moving on. It may be boring, but it is remarkable.

But, this Wimbledon has been a treasure trove of chaos. The usual four men will not make their way to the semi-finals. Serena Williams and her bright pink pants has gone, turned over by a flabbergasted Sabine Lisicki. Maria Sharapova too has moved on, undone by the slippery grass and a qualifier ranked 131st. There are new faces, interesting faces.

There will be a Polish semi-finalist for the first time, after compatriots Jerzy Janowicx and high-stepping can-can dancer Lukasz Kubot play each other in Wednesday’s quarter-finals.

We were charmed by Sergiy Stakhovsky, and his marathon autograph session, wonky smile and lucid press conference after beating Federer. Then there was the elastic tongue-pierced Dustin Brown, ranked in the lowly 180s, owner of both the longest dreadlocks in the game and the most flamboyant tears of the tournament after beating Lleyton Hewitt.

Many of these are not insanely wealthy. They play for love, despite the grind, the intensity, the isolation and the demoralisation of successive defeat. Murray may yet dominate the fortnight if he wins on Sunday, but Wimbledon 2013 has belonged to the littler people, who have not yet learned to hide their true selves from the wider world.

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The Ashes 2013: England's Jonathan Trott is a dependable machine ready to drive Australia to distraction

I don’t know, I tell him. Trott chuckles heartily.

For a man who claims not to read his own press, he appears to have a sharp sense of how he comes across. “People tell me these things,” he says. “When I’m fielding on the boundary. ‘Come on, smile you boring bastard!’ ‘You grumpy old man!’ That sort of stuff.”

None of this is said with bitterness. Trott has never been overly preoccupied with changing opinions of him, and yet there is a sense that some of the mud that is periodically slung at him may have hit its mark.

Before England’s Champions Trophy final against India, Trott reacted to pointed questions from journalists about his scoring rate with a recalcitrance bordering on hostility.

“Hostile?” he replies. “It’s all people talk about. Is it hostile when you give people answers and they repeatedly ask you the same question? If we win, if we’re getting through to finals, and we’re still getting questioned, then you’ve got to wonder: what else do you have to do?”

The fact is that as England go into next week’s Ashes series, Trott is their most reliable source of runs. Until he was out for eight in the truncated Champions Trophy game against New Zealand at Cardiff, his lowest score for England in 2013, in all formats, was 27. That is more than six months without a clear failure.

Think about it. When was the last time you can remember Trott being out of nick? Against Pakistan in the Middle East? England’s highest run-scorer in that series. South Africa last summer? He averaged 43. As an international batsman, Trott is coming tantalisingly close to eliminating form from his game. As a spectator experience, he offers a profound calm: ticking away like an old grandfather clock.

This is no accident. “Your mannerisms and body language are a mirror of your mental thoughts,” he says. “If someone’s standing in a room at a business meeting, you can always tell if someone’s nervous. Body language slows your mind down a bit, so you stop thinking about irrelevant thoughts. That’s all concentration is: it’s an absence of irrelevant thought.”

And this is where all that scratching around at the crease comes in: those borderline-obsessive mannerisms that irritate fielding teams to distraction. “You find things that get you into that state. So if you’re going to write this article, you’ll generally find that you have a routine that you do the whole time. Sit down, have a cup of coffee, switch the light on, open your computer. You do your best work when you do it a certain way. Look at any repetition sport like baseball, or golf. The geniuses are the ones who can just do it in any order, and it’ll come out brilliantly the whole time.”

A term you will often come across in reference to Trott is “machine”. But the emotionless run-robot we see at the crease is only half the story. “When I’m waiting to bat is the most nervous I get,” he says. “Then when there’s a wicket, it’s almost like a sense of relief. I just switch on.”

What gets him worked up? “Bad driving. Steven Finn is the worst. There’s no co-ordination between his toes and his hands.”

What else? “Unfairness. I hate people who make themselves popular out of others’ misfortune. Like, I find a comedian really funny when he can take the piss out of himself. But when he takes the piss out of someone to make himself look more humorous, that’s a pet hate.”

Who does he find funny? “I find Ravi Bopara very funny. We’re a very funny team, actually. In terms of comedians, Michael McIntyre’s quite funny. He’s quite good value.”

Perhaps, as the Ashes circus finally rolls into town, it is time for a reappraisal. The paradox is that one of the most successful England players of modern times is also one of the least understood. Yet it is a measure of his value that he is routinely the batsman that opposition teams target for verbal abuse.

“I enjoy that,” he says. “It’s a compliment. They wouldn’t bother sledging you if you were rubbish. Sometimes I use it. I say: ‘Right, I’m going to make you field a bit longer now.’ ”

And for just a second, the menacing glint in his eye is back.

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'Short and explosive'

The ball shapes in a fraction and hits the top of off-stump.

David Saker applauds. “I was expecting a bit more of a celebration,” says Stuart Broad, as he rearranges the furniture.

In fact, I was just happy to deliver the ball into the correct net. We are in the indoor school at the Oval for a taster training session with the England team.

What stands out is how targeted the drills are. Graham Thorpe explains how to work the ball into the gaps against spin, Saker schools us in the perfect out-swinger, while Jos Buttler demonstrates the art of taking low catches.

“It’s all sharp-reaction stuff,” says Jonathan Trott. “Short and explosive, which is what cricket’s about, really. It’s not a huge endurance thing. It’s more about performing for five seconds - a throw over the top of the stumps for a run-out, or a split-second catch.”

NatWest Current Account customers can win a training session with the England team. Sign up and enter at natwest.com/cricket

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Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech bangs the drum for Jose Mourinho's second beat at Stamford Bridge

That was certainly the wish of most Chelsea supporters and players throughout Mourinho’s first stint as manager. Cech can still vividly recall the moment that he heard Mourinho would be leaving back in September 2007. Equally, some 2,084 days on, he did not allow himself to believe that Mourinho would be reappointed until there was official confirmation on the Chelsea website.

“Nobody could really see it coming when he left,” says Cech. “Everybody was sad. When you break something which was working you never know what to expect. I only have great memories working with him. I am glad that we can do it again together. I hope that we can reproduce it now and even push it forward.”

It has been to the credit of players like Cech that the managerial turbulence at Chelsea has not stemmed the flow of silverware.

The question lingers, however, of what more might have been achieved if Mourinho had stayed. “You can’t look back, no one will get anything from the past,” says Cech. “Once a manager’s left, he’s left. That is one of the strengths of the team, of the club, even in difficult times, we always find a way to get out of it.

“You can’t change 10 players in October. If you need to do something to really change, then obviously the manager is under main threat. This is what happens and in that moment everything changes for you as a player. You have to forget about everything and start looking at yourself to say, ‘OK, am I working well enough to be in the team?’?”

Does he feel guilt when a manager leaves? “Not guilty, I feel the responsibility,” says Cech. “You can argue all day if it is better to have one manager and no trophy or 10 managers and 10 trophies.

“This is the way it goes in our club, we seem to get the success we wish although there are other ways to do it. The winning mentality, the never give up mentality is always there.”

That mindset was first installed by Mourinho and, according to Cech, it was also his preparation that set him apart. “I think it’s the mentality, the wording and detail he puts in everything,” says Cech. “He’s one of the managers who would rather lose than draw. He’s all about winning in the right way. That means you are tactically prepared and use the weapons to kill your opponent. I think Jose Mourinho will always make you see what he wants you to see.

“He understands people are different. No matter if you played one or 10 games under him, you really feel a part of the team. He is very demanding so everyone really is on top of your game whether you play or don’t play.”

Mourinho’s second coming, however, is but one explanation for the nervous excitement that has been swirling all week in the pit of Cech’s stomach.

Ahead of the return to pre-season training on Monday, Cech will end his summer break by playing the drums for the rock band Eddie Stoilow at a music festival in Prague that will be attended by 30,000 people. During this past week, band practice has been combined with the eighth annual running of his soccer schools, which provide coaching for up to 160 children from all over the world, including Korea, California, the UK and South Africa, inside the vast 220,000-capacity Strahov Stadium.

Cech’s passion for helping young people is obvious in the way he effortlessly interacts with his awestruck pupils. He approaches his music with a similar diligence.

“Whenever I go to a concert, I try to stand somewhere where I can see the drummer and watch him,” he says. “Friday’s concert will be nerve-wracking. The most I’ve played to is about 2,000 people. If the drummer goes wrong in a band, the whole thing falls apart.”

It is, of course, similar for a goalkeeper and Cech knows that his past brilliance will have no bearing on Mourinho’s decisions next season.

“He picks what he thinks is the best team no matter what your name is,” he says. “It is up to me to show him he will find a better keeper than before. I do not think he will pick me because I played well in 2004 and 2005. It does not count.”

He adds: “In the last two years we had a lot of changes. Those players now have the experience of winning the Europa League, FA Cup, Champions League. They have the same hunger to repeat winning the titles and they have still the same quality. Now we’ve got a manager who’s won it all in a variety of clubs. Our ambition is always the same: to try to win everything.”

Petr Cech runs his academy for children aged 7 to 15 in Prague every summer. For more information go to www.academy.petr-cech.com

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Tour de France 2013, stage four: time trial edges Chris Froome ahead of rivals as Simon Gerrans claims yellow

“Well, seeing that the Aussies have come through with the quicker time and now have the yellow jersey, we can’t say that,” laughed the Tour de France favourite. “But, actually, we’re happy. We’re in perfect position at the moment.”

In this summer of British-Australian sporting confrontations, the chapeau had to be tipped to the nine fellows of Australia’s Orica-GreenEdge team who, on a 25km loop beginning and ending in a festival atmosphere on La Prom, produced the fastest team time trial in the history of Grand Tours to put their 33-year-old sprinter, Simon Gerrans, in yellow.

Yet after finishing third, gaining a few precious seconds on Froome’s main general-classification rivals and not having to worry yet about the burden of shouldering the maillot jaune, Sky were left enthusing about their first day on the swish French mainland following the wild and wacky adventures in Corsica.

Once again, they ended up saluting Geraint Thomas. With his cracked hip, he was not expected to contribute to the nine-man effort, where rider after rider has to take ferocious turns powering off the front.

Yet not only did he contribute to the tight formation for 24 of the 25 kilometres, Froome reckoned he also “put in some massive turns” at the front to ensure they finished only three seconds behind Orica-GreenEdge, whose winning time of 25?min 56.28?sec meant their average speed around the circuit was a record 57.841?kph. Rather faster than their team bus, which got wedged beneath the finish gantry on Saturday, one suspects.

It meant a second dream day for former Sky rider Gerrans, following his stage win in Calvi on Monday, as he became the sixth Australian to wear the yellow. Phil Anderson, the first back in 1981, was the man who first encouraged the Victorian to drop motocross and take up cycling.

Yet Sky were perfectly happy not to win yellow themselves because of the responsibilities that go with it, even if their Norwegian star, Edvald Boasson Hagen, who would have earned the privilege, may not have felt quite so sanguine. “We tried but if we were in yellow, it would mean over the next couple of predominantly flat stages, we’d have to be on the front possibly expending all that effort on defending just a few seconds, which would be a bit unnecessary at the moment,” said Froome.

There was the added bonus of chipping time out of his rivals, including six seconds from Saxo-Tinkoff’s Alberto Contador, 17 seconds on Alejandro Valverde, 23 seconds from Cadel Evans and 25 seconds from Joaquim Rodríguez. Froome smiled: “We’ve taken note of that advantage over Contador.”

It will also not have escaped him that Benjamín Noval, one of Contador’s key lieutenants, clipped a

camera-wielding spectator at full pelt and tore tendons in his fingers. His Tour could be in doubt.

Froome still seems remarkably serene. “I felt really good, able to do longer pulls on the front. I’m feeling like I’m really coming into some good form coming into the mountains.”

“He is looking very fruity, shall we say,” smiled his admiring team boss, Sir Dave Brailsford. “And Richie Porte is in the best form I’ve ever seen him in too, climbing fantastically well.”

All is well in Sky’s world then, especially with Thomas continuing to confound everyone, including himself. “I don’t really believe it myself, ” he said, after a team official congratulated him on an unreal effort.

David Millar had started the day, believing he could turn the place into the Promenade d’Ecossais but the Scotsman’s hopes of wearing yellow for the first time since 2000 foundered when his highly fancied Garmin-Sharp team finished sixth.

The 36-year-old, who was within half a wheel of landing yellow in Corsica, conceded: “I was so close on Sunday, and the yellow is such a big thing, that it was unavoidable that I should be thinking of it. I’m very disappointed because it would have book-ended my career perfectly, but that would perhaps have been a bit too perfect. Life isn’t that fair.”

Mark Cavendish improves daily having taken antibiotics for bronchitis last week and was praised by his Omega Pharma-Quick Step manager, Rolf Aldag, for overcoming his

Corsican disappointments and helping his team finish runners-up, just one second adrift. “B------s!” was the typically succinct Cav summary.

His mood may be improved today if he can open his victory account for the Tour on the 219km trek from Cagnes-sur-Mer. He needs to start firing or dreams of green will quickly evaporate.

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Tour de France 2013: live

Patrick Lefevere, the Omega Pharma-Quick Step general manager, was not impressed ...

12.05 The six-man breakaway, whose lead has increased to almost 13 minutes, completed 37.6km in the opening hour today so, for those guys, not especially quick.

11.55 The escapees' lead just keeps growing and growing and is now over 12 minutes. Meanwhile, if you fancy taking part in a spin class with Olympic champion Laura Trott then you can. Providing you enter this competition from Prudential who are sponsoring the Prudential RideLondon festival of cycling next month.

11.40 Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) was the first rider over the Côte de Châteauneuf-Grasse as the Belgian earned his first two points in the mountains classification while Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun) picked up a single point. The group of escapees have extended their lead to over 10 minutes now.

Meanwhile, you may have missed the story of Ted King (Cannondale) who was booted out of the Tour on Tuesday evening after the young American missed the 25 per cent time cut from the team time trial?

King, like many others, crashed during Saturday's opening stage where he collected multiple cuts and grazes and also separated his left shoulder (not quite sure what that means, but sounds painful).

After struggling in the early stages of yesterday's team time trial, where King was using a normal road bike fitted with aero bars rather than the uncomfortable time trial bike, he completed the 25km in a time of 32min 32sec, seven seconds outside of the time limit - set at 25 per cent of the winning time.

King later argued that his power meter showed a time within the limit, however officials refused to be swayed and the grand boucle debutant was forced to bid adieu to his team-mates.

Here's what king had tosay on the matter earlier this morning ...

An emotional King whose parents had just arrived in France to watch their son, seen here in this video, has admitted that his elimination from the sport's biggest race is was "painful" while admitting that it was "a heartbreaking decision".

11.30 Enrico Gasparotto (Astana), last year's Amstel Gold Race winner, has crashed in the peloton while the six-man lead group have extended their lead to over six minutes. Japan's national road race champion Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar), who started the day 75th overall 3min 42sec behind Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge), is the virtual leader of the Tour de France.

11.20 The group of escapees have now built up a lead of just over a minute. Today's stage, incidentally, features four categorised climbs - the Côte de Châteauneuf-Grasse, Col de l'Ange, Côte de la Roquebrussanne and the Côte des Bastides - before a final kick up the Col de la Gineste around 12km from the finishing line.

The Col de la Gineste, despite having the save average gradient of the Côte des Bastides has been left uncategorised by race organisers and could act as a platform for a late attack.

11.05 And bang on cue six riders - Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar), Kévin Reza (Europcar), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun) - have escaped the clutches of the peloton after just two kilometres of racing.

10.50 The riders are currently trundling along behind Tour director Christian Prudhomme and his shiny red Skoda as they negoiate the 7.9km neutral zone before the white flag is dropped and a handful of riders from French teams, and Vacansoleil-DCM, attack off the front.

10.45 Morning everybody and welcome to our live rolling blog from stage five of the Tour de France.

Today's stage is the second longest of this year's race, though its undulating parcours, or route, from Cagnes-sur-Mer to Marseille shouldn't pose too many problems for the sprinters.

Looking at the profile and seeing how the race has gone so far since it set out in Corsica on Saturday, I can't decide whether today will end in a bunch sprint finish ior the victor will come from a breakaway. Seeing as I've yet to get one prediction correct, I'm going for a breakaway.

By the way, just heard that it's raining in Marseille, though the riders have another five hours till they arrive there so this may be the most irrelevant piece of information I share with you today.

Anyway, here's what Stephen Roche, the 1987 Tour de France winner, told us about today's stage when we met up with him recently ...

... and here's a snazzy little video from by the Global Cycling Network ...

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Jersey watch: Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) is the man in the maillot jaune (leader's yellow jersey) after his team pulled off a surprise win in Tuesday's team time trial. With no points on offer in the points competition Peter Sagan (Cannondale) retained his maillot vert (green jersey for leading the points classification) while Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma - Quick-Step) will, for the third successive day, be wearing the maillot blanc (white jersey, young rider classification). Pierre Rolland (Europcar) wears the maillot à pois (polka dot jersey, mountains classification).