Number of genuine sprint finishes at this years Tour de France: 1
Number of stage wins by Mark Cavendish: 1
Mark Cavendish proved himself as the fastest man in the peleton, taking his first ever Tour de France stage win in Stage 5 this years longest, a dead flat 232km journey from Cholet to Châteauroux. In doing so he ended a 5 year drought for British riders in the tour, which dated back to David Millar's (drug assisted) victory in the Nantes time trial in the Centenary edition of the race.
In the first pure sprint finish of this years event Cavendish had the pace and the power to take the win from pre-eminent sprinters Oscar Freire and veteran Erik Zabel who filled the podium places. Thor Hushovd could not repeat his stage 2 performance but his 4th place finish on the stage was enough to secure him his first lead in the points competition this year. He will pull on the maillot vert tomorrow. The 2km long finish was perfect for the sprinters, and while Hushovd got the early jump on the field, he was unable to hold off Cavendish who was led out beautifully by his Team Colombia train, and had enough left in the tank to hold off the fast finishing Freire and Zabel. Aussie Baden Cooke had his best tour finish for many a year finishing 5th, while Robbie McEwen will be disappointed to finish in the back half of the top 10 after leading the peleton home yesterday.
However, it was so nearly too little too late for the peleton who again let a French-led breakaway dangle out in front tantalisingly close to the line. This time it was heartbreak for French National Champion Nicolas Vogodny who was swept up just 75 metres from the line after surviving in a 3-man breakaway for the preceding 220km.
The entire peleton finished together (barring a few single stragglers) leaving no change to the overall classification, although Alejandro Valverde gave his Caisse d'Epange teammates a scare by hitting the deck midway through the stage. Luckily he managed to escape with only a grazed knee and was quickly guided back to the peleton by his team. Australian born German Heinrich Haussler was not so lucky, crashing just outside the final 3kms after clipping another riders wheel and limping to the line over 6 minutes behind the peleton. Had he crashed inside the 3km banner, race rules would have seen him awarded the same time as the rest of the main field.
With no mountain points on the days stage, and with no time gaps amongst the field there was no change to either the King of the Mountains competition or to the Best Young Rider standings.
2007 King of the Mountains winner Mauricio Soler's brave effort to defend his jersey ended at Stage 5. The Colombian was forced to retire, unable to continue with the injuries he received in a number of crashes in the first few days of this years event. His horrible 2008 Tour was summed up by the fact that he even managed to crash in the neutral zone at the depart reel of today's stage.
Tonight's stage sees the next real rendezvous of this years Tour, with the first category 2 climbs of the race, including the finishing 11km drag up to the ski-resort of Super Besse. This should see another reshuffling of the GC, and a possible new leader of the King of the Mountains as it will be the first time the mountain climbers have stretched their legs so far in 2008.
Yellow Jersey - Stefan Schumacher
Green Jersey - Thor Hushovd
Polka Dot Jersey - Thomas Voeckler
White Jersey - Thomas Lovkvist
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