Cavendish wins Stage 5 sprint in Marseille

Mark Cavendish (OmegaPharma-QuickStep) secured his 24th stage win during Stage 5 of the Tour de France. The former world champion out-kicked Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky Pro Cycling) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) to the finish line in Marseille.

Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) will keep the yellow jersey heading into Stage 6, a 176.5-km race from Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier.

Stage 5 included a 228.5-km race from Cagnes-Sur-Mer to Marseille. The race included four king of the mountain ascents and one intermediate sprint. A breakaway set off during the opening kilometres of the race and included Romain Sicard (Euskaltel Euskadi), Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun), Yukiya Arashiro and Kevin Reza (Europcar), Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana). The breakaway gained a maximum of 12:45 minutes.

Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) picked up the points on the Cote de Chateauneruf-Grasse, 22 kms into the stage. He went on to pick up the points on the second climb, Col de l’Ange at 93 kms and the intermediate sprint in Lorgues at 103 kms.

Back in the main field, Orica-GreenEdge set a quick pace with help from Lotto-Belisol and Argos-Shimano bringing the gap down to under 10 minutes at the 100-km mark.

Arashiro snagged the climber’s points on the third ascent over the Cote de la Roquebrussanne at 154 kms into the race. The leaders attacked one another and ended up dropping Sicard and Delaplace out of the break. The four remaining leaders were under five minutes ahead of the field at the bottom of the last climb over Cote des Bastides at 198 kms, where De Gendt secured the points.

The peloton reeled in the the breakaway with four kilometres to go as the sprinter’s respective team lead outs formed and jockeyed for position on the way to the finish line. Omega Pharma-QuickStep took control in the final metres of the race and Cavendish secured the win.

Stage results

1. Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
2. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky Pro Cycling)
3. Peter Sagan (Cannondale)
4. Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol)
5. Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida)
103. Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp)
157. Svein Tuft (Orica-GreenEdge) +0:07:23
194. David Veilleux (Europcar) +0:10:08

Overall classification

1. Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) 12:47:24
2. Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge)
3. Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge)
4. Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) +0:00:01
5. Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
14. Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) +0:00:17
143. David Veilleux (Europcar) +0:25:28
169. Svein Tuft (Orica-GreenEdge) +0:33:23