Mark Cavendish won the 5th stage of the Tour de France in a bunch sprint at Saint Vulbas, breaking the race win record he shared with Eddy Merckx.
The Astana-Qazaqstan rider took a commanding lead to claim his 35th Tour stage victory, beating Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) into second, while Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) finished third.
Cavendish had announced his retirement last year, but he backed down from the idea after crashing in the Tour and losing his chance to set a new record.
After a relatively quiet start to the race, Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ) and Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) formed the day’s breakaway after 30km, building a maximum lead of just under five minutes before the sprinters’ teams set about reducing the gap.
The two escapees were caught on the climb of the Côte de Lhuis (4th category) 30 km from the finish, while the roads were made dangerous by incessant rain. The combination of road equipment and wet asphalt made the race dangerous, with some nervous accidents, fortunately without serious consequences.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) retains the yellow jersey after finishing safely through the peloton, although the Slovenian narrowly avoided a crash on a roundabout with just under 60km to go. Pogačar maintains a 45-second lead over Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) in the overall standings, while Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) remains third, 50 seconds behind.
More soon …
Results
Results provided by FirstCycling
