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).
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