Mark Cavendish got his first stage win of this year’s Tour, and the 16th of his career, on Stage 5, a crash marred journey from Carhaix to Cap Frehel. After missing out on the Tour’s first real sprint finish two days ago, the Manx man made amends with one of his toughest stage wins yet, storming home over the top of his rivals to take the victory from Philipe Gilbert and Jose Joaquin Rojas. Despite just missing out on his second stage win, Gilbert’s second was enough to take over the lead in the points competition from Rojas by 8 points. Cavendish moved up to fourth in the points competition. Thor Hushovd produced another top 10 display to retain the Yellow Jersey.
As had been expected, the final 100km of the day’s stage along the Normandy coast caused carnage in the peleton with a number of crashes marring the stage. While GC candidates Alberto Contador and Robert Gesink both hit the deck, they managed to rejoin the race and did not lose any time on the day. Janez Brajkovic was not so lucky, the young Radioshack rider unable to finish the day’s stage following his tumble. Tom Boonen also limped home some 13 minutes behind the winners after hitting the deck, and word is he is unlikely to start Stage 6.
Now I know the heads of the peleton will be complaining post race about the organisers taking the race along such a dangerous route – but the fact is the public loves this type of racing, and stages like this are much more exciting than the stock standard flat sprint stages that the Tour usually serves up.
All the props have to go to Cavendish though for showing the ability to win on such a tough day’s racing. While most of the pure sprinters, such as Tyler Farrar, finished well back in the field, Cavendish was able to overcome the lack of his usual HTC lead-out to defeat classic type specialists such as Gilbert and Rojas. With two deadpan flat stages to come over the next two days, it would be a brave man to suggest Cavendish will not have two more stage wins to his credit come Friday night. That should put him right back up the top of the green jersey standings before the race enters the Massif Central.
Yellow Jersey – Thor Hushovd
Polka Dot Jersey – Cadel Evans
Green Jersey – Philippe Gilbert
White Jersey – Geraint Thomas
No comments:
Post a Comment