Mark Cavendish won Stage 5 of the 2010 Tour de France (AFP Getty)
Shortly after a hard crash at the Tour de Swiss and a disappointing start to the 2010 Tour de France, Mark Cavendish and the HTC/Columbia Team get it done in stage 5 with a Cavendish sprint win. Carrying the peloton with 56% of overall effort during the 187.5 km spin from Epernay – Montargis, Columbia/HTC made sure their man was going to be ready and up front for the sprint finish. With several kilometers to go, it was an organized HTC/Columbia lead out until the crew from Garmin/Slipstream broke up the pack to make a serious run with Tyler Farrar who is suffering from an elbow injury.
In the end, Mark Renshaw pulled Cavendish out front and he out-sprinted Gerald Ciolek and Edvald Boasson Hagen to earn his first 2010 Tour de France stage win.
“It means everything to win,” Cavendish said. “It’s incredibly emotional. All the pressure and emotion built up but it’s finally over.”
“It was hard this year. I always said everything was about the Tour de France. Thing didn’t go our way yesterday. I let them down massively and it would have been easy for them to say ‘He hasn’t got it’ like other people did. But they rode for me. Siutsou rode covered in bandages and Rogers was there at the finish and took it on too. Renshaw did an incredible job, fighting with Thor [Hushovd], with Tyler [Farrar] and with Oscar [Freire]. I knew he’d drop me off at the right place.”
“The guys did an incredible job, they were fighting right till the end and I had to finish it off,” said Cavendish, who won an incredible six stages on the 2009 edition. “It’s a great relief and a great sense of achievement. We’ve had some bad luck on this Tour and then yesterday we had some good luck and they did a great job but I let the guys down. They could have given up today and they didn’t.”
It was another crash free day for the peloton who was chasing a 3 man breakaway consisting of Caisse d’Epargne’s José Ivan Gutierrez, attacking hard and taking off after six kilometres. With Jurgen van de Walle (Quick Step) and Julian El Fares (Cofidis) in tow, the Spaniard set about accumulating a significant gap which became a minute after seven kilometres of riding off the front. The main peloton eventually swallowed up the lead breakaway and with 6km remaining, the final attack by José Ivan Gutierrez was all but a memory and the stage was setup for the sprinters.
This Mark Cavendish win should set up a series of Tour wins by the HTC/Columbia team as Cavendish’s confidence is back. However, all eyes are on Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador and the rest of the GC contenders as we head into the mountain stages over the weekend.
Stage 5 Results
| 1 | Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team HTC – Columbia | 4:30:50 | |
| 2 | Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram | ||
| 3 | Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team | ||
| 4 | Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne | ||
| 5 | Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team | ||
| 6 | Sébastien Turgot (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom | ||
| 7 | Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha | ||
| 8 | Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini | ||
| 9 | Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | ||
| 10 | Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin – Transitions |
GC Results After Stage 5
| 1 | Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank | 22:59:45 | |
| 2 | Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team | 0:00:23 | |
| 3 | Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team | 0:00:39 | |
| 4 | Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin – Transitions | 0:00:46 | |
| 5 | Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step | 0:01:01 | |
| 6 | Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank | 0:01:09 | |
| 7 | Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team | 0:01:19 | |
| 8 | Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana | 0:01:31 | |
| 9 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana | 0:01:40 | |
| 10 | Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto | 0:01:42 |