Tour de France 2014: Stage 5 Winner, Results and Updated Leaderboard Standings

Belkin's Lars Boom claimed a stunning victory in a severely rainy Stage 5 of the 2014 Tour de France, but Vincenzo Nibali stayed in the yellow jersey as he finished an impressive third behind teammate Jakob Fuglsang.   

Defending champion Chris Froome crashed twice—after a fall also on Tuesday—and was forced to pull out of the race as Nibali made time on all his competitors, including Alberto Contador. 

Stage 5 had been mooted beforehand as one of the Tour's most treacherous due to its nine cobbled sections with Contador admitting anxiety, per Matt Westby of Sky Sports:

"I will cross my fingers for tomorrow - it will be a really difficult day," Contador said. "The weather forecast is very bad. Without bad weather it will be a complicated stage, but with rain it will be like ice skating with bikes."

The appalling weather forced organisers to remove two of those sections before the start of the day's racing.

Indeed, there were crashes galore amongst the peloton in the 152.5-kilometre stage as the rain and the cobbles forced the riders to string out into several disparate groups.

Position	Rider	Nationality	Team	Time
1	Lars Boom	Netherlands	Belkin	3:18:35
2	Jakob Fuglsang	Denmark	Astana	+19
3	Vincenzo Nibali	Italy	Astana	+19
4	Peter Sagan	Slovakia	Cannondale	+1:01
5	Fabian Cancellara	Switzerland	Trek	+1:01
6	Jens Keukeleire	Belgium	Orica	+1:01
7	Michal Kwiatkowski	Poland	O.Ph.-Q-Step	+1:07
8	Lieuwe Westra	Netherlands	Astana	+1:09
9	Matteo Trentin	Italy	O.Ph.-Q-Step	+1:21
10	Cyril Lemoine	France	Cofidis	+1:45

Nibali was joined by two Astana teammates in the front group along with Boom as the race reached its climax. The Dutchman eventually broke away at persistent breathtaking speed to claim the stage—his first ever in the Tour de France.

The Italian rider attacked the cobbles with great gusto and managed to increase the gap to his main contenders, which before the day's racing had stood at just two seconds.

Green-jersey wearer Peter Sagan beat out Fabian Cancellara in a sprint for fourth place, and the Slovak now sits third in the general classification.

Position	Rider	Team	Points
1	Peter Sagan	Cannondale	185 pts
2	Marcel Kittel	Giant-Shimano	135 pts
3	Bryan Coquard	Europcar	121 pts
4	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha	82 pts
5	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana	53 pts
6	Mark Renshaw	O.Ph.-Q-Step	50 pts
7	Arnaud Demare	FDJ.fr	44 pts
8	Greg Van Avermaet	BMC Racing	42 pts
9	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin-Sharp	42 pts
10	Michal Kwiatowski	O.Ph.-Q-Step	40 pts

Contador lost almost three minutes as he struggled while Team Sky's Richie Porte—now the team leader after Froome's crash—lost just over two minutes after some fine work from Geraint Thomas to keep the Australian rider in touch. 

Position	Rider	Team	Time	Gap
1	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana	20h 26' 46''
2	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana	20h 26' 48''	+ 00' 02''
3	Peter Sagan	Cannondale	20h 27' 30''	+ 00' 44''
4	Michal Kwiatowski	O.Ph-Q-Step	20h 27' 36''	+ 00' 50''
5	Fabian Cancellara	Trek	20h 28' 03''	+ 01' 17''
6	Jurgen Van Den Broeck	Lotto-Belisol	20h 28' 31''	+ 01' 45''
7	Tony Gallopin	Lotto-Belisol	20h 28' 31''	+ 01' 45''
8	Richie Porte	Sky	20h 28' 40''	+ 01' 54''
9	Andrew Talansky	Garmin-Sharp	20h 28' 51''	+ 02' 05''
10	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar	20h 28' 57''	+ 02' 11''

Froome fell once early in the day but was able to make his way back to the peloton with the help of four of his Team Sky teammates.

However, a second fall before the first of the cobbled sections spelt the end for the defending champion. He attempted to get back on his bike but was clearly in serious discomfort and eventually abandoned, as confirmed by Team Sky:

Thus, Stage 5 of the 2014 Tour de France delivered as much incident as many had predicted with a favourite abandoning, crashes aplenty, a yellow-jersey performance and a stunning maiden victory for Boom.

Position	Rider	Team	Points
1	Cyril LeMoine	Cofidis	6
2	Blel Kadri	AG2R La Mondiale	5
3	Jens Voigt	Trek	4
4	Nicolas Edet	Cofidis	4
5	Thomas Voeckler	Europcar	3

It is now almost impossible to pick a favourite for the general classification, but Nibali has certainly laid down a marker early on.

The riders will be relieved to leave Stage 5 behind as they move on to Stage 6, which sees a relatively flat 195-km route from Arras to Reims.