- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Briton Mark Cavendish has won the fifth stage of the 100th Tour de France, edging out Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen and Slovakian Peter Sagan in a sprint finish.
It is the 24th career stage-win for the Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider and his first of this year’s Tour.
There was a crash in the main field with 200m to go that caught up a lot of riders, just one of many crashes on the day, but Cavendish had already crossed the line.
There was no change to the top five in the general classification at the end of the stage, with Orica-GreenEDGE’s Simon Gerrans to wear the leader’s yellow jersey for another day.
Positions in the other classifications also remained the same, with Peter Sagan (Cannondale) still in green, Michal Kwiatowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) in white and Pierre Rolland (Europcar) in the polka dot jersey.
The fifth stage of the Tour de France took the riders along a 228.5km course from Cagnes-sur-Mur to Marseille.
Although far from flat, with three category four climbs and one category three, it was predicted that the sprinters would decide the outcome, and this proved to be true.
The day began with an immediate attack and breakaway, with six men out in front of the peloton by 25 seconds after only two kilometers.
The riders in that group were Thomas De Gendt (Vacasoleil-DCM), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun), Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar), Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskade) and Kevin Reza (Europcar).
The group stayed out front for the majority of the stage, which allowed Belgian De Gent to take the points in the King of the Mountains classification in the first, third and fourth climbs of the day.
They had increased the gap back to the main field to as much as 12min45sec by the 37km mark until the peloton, driven mainly by Lotto-Belisol in their effort to get their man Andre Greipel in a position to sprint for the win, began to reel them back in.
Orica-GreenEDGE, buoyed by their success in the previous two stages and looking to maintain their momentum, were also prominent at the front of the peloton as the stage progressed, steadily increasing the pace to catch the breakaway group and give their sprinters a chance at victory.
Key man Matt Goss dropped away from the peloton with around 19km mark to go, however, a section of the course that, although not categorised as a climb, still had enough of a gradient to see the non-climbers struggle.
It was a busy day for the mechanics, with a series of punctures and bike problems experienced by many riders throughout, including race favourite Chris Froome’s lieutenant and Team Sky teammate Riche Porte.
One by one, the men in the breakaway came back to the main field, with Lutsenko the last man out, the peloton finally catching up with the young rider from Kazakhstan with 4km to the finish line.
Omega Pharma-Quick Step, Orica GreenEDGE and Lotto-Belisol then jostled for position at the head of the pack, each trying to get their men into the best position to steal the win, but it was the Belgian team who proved the best on the day.
Gert Steegmans moved to the front with 500m to go and led out his man Cavendish brilliantly, the Briton bursting past his Belgian teammate and crossing the line for the win.
Fancy a wager on your favourite sport? Head on over to PlayUp for great odds and friendly customer service and pick a winner. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.