Mark Cavendish has done it–he won Stage 5 the Tour de France and has made history.
The first full day in France brought the second bunch sprint of the 111th Tour de France with Mark Cavendish powering to the win. Tadej Pogačar had a sketchy moment when he had to avoid a sign marking a traffic island, but he kept safe in the yellow jersey. With the win Cav has broke the record of 34 that he shared with Eddy Merckx. Cav now has 35 wins, an incredible moment for cycling after the British rider un-retired to come back for one last season.
The Course
The first 50 kilometers were downhill and only two Cat. 4 climbs (and an uncategorized climb) dotted the landscape over 177.4 km. Yes, this seemed like one for the sprinters.
Back on the flat for stage 5 of the #TDF2024, from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas. pic.twitter.com/EjCYNalyDT
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 3, 2024
There was a handful of attempts to breakaway, including one by fourth-place Juan Ayuso, but in the end there was only the French duo of Clément Russo and Matteo Vércher up the road. The intrepid twosome tickled the 5:00 gap mark. After two hours the average speed was 39 km/h.
Russo missed a water bottle basket. He’s better at the fadeaway jump shot.
🏀 🤏
— Équipe Cycliste Groupama-FDJ (@GroupamaFDJ) July 3, 2024
With 60 km to go, and the pace quickened in anticipation of the day’s intermediate sprint, Pogačar’s attempt to avoid a traffic island caused a crash. Mads Pedersen took the third-most green jersey points. Pedersen and Biniam Girmay were equal on points on the top of the classification; Jonas Abrahamsen lost the green jersey but he could console himself with his other, polka dot jersey.
After the fugitives were swept up, Abrahamsen gobbled up the single KOM left on the course.
Alexander Kristoff crashed and it seemed he wouldn’t be mixing it up in Wednesday’s sprint. Soon after that incident, traffic furniture caused another crash, this one claiming Christophe Laporte, who has had a bummer of a 2024.
With the average speed up to a blistering 42 km/h, Lotto-Dstny and Astana pulled the field towards Saint Vulbas. There was a tight right-hand bend with 2.4 km to go and another 400 metres later.
The Astana team took control in the last kilometre after some intense…
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