July 8: Britain’s Mark Cavendish finally relaunched his stuttering sprint on the Tour de France by powering to victory on the fifth stage on Thursday.
Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey on another crash-free day for the peloton as they rode through the heat of Champagne country in pursuit of a three-man breakaway.
The last of that trio, Spanish champion Jose Ivan Gutierrez of Caisse d’Epargne, was caught with three kilometres of the 187.5km ride from Epernay remaining. The sprinters’ teams, notably Garmin, HTC-Columbia, Lampre and Cervelo then engaged in a tactical battle for the best position at the front, with Cavendish finally prevailing after emerging from the wheel of lead-out man Mark Renshaw. Milram’s German sprinter Gerald Ciolek finished second with Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen in third for the second day in a row for Team Sky.
This was the 24-year-old Cavendish’s 11th career win on the world’s biggest bike race, and comes in the wake of several failures in a week which has seen Italian veteran Alessandro Petacchi dominate two sprints.
After he misfired on the fourth stage when HTC-Columbia finally got their sprint train together, Cavendish admitted it was a huge relief to get the monkey off his back. “The guys did an incredible job, they were fighting right till the end and I had to finish it off. It’s a great relief and a great sense of achievement,” said Cavendish.