Thursday, July 8, 2010

Stage 5 - The Missle Strikes Back

A day after putting in possibly the worst sprint of his career, Mark Cavendish silenced his critics with a sprint victory in Stage 5, a 187km trek from Epernay to Montargis. Canvendish showed his customary finishing burst to easily hold of Gerald Ciolek and Ed Boasson Hagen who finished second and third respectively. There was no changes in the overall classification.

The story of the day was the big return to form of Mark Cavendish who looked to be shadow of his former self when finishing outside the top 10 in Stage 4. Delieverd a similarly perfect lead out by Mark Renshaw on the finish into Montargis on Stage 5, the Missile showed he was back in business with his trademark power in the sprint delivering him the 11th Tour stage victory of his career. The win was an emotional one for the Manx man who cried tears of joy on the podium, after he has been lambasted in the press for his dissapointing start to this years Tour. And while he may have thrown too many points away already in the race for the Green Jersey, a return to form could see a couple more stage victories for Cavendish at this years tour. Ciolek and Boasson Hagen continue to sprint consistently without breaking through for the big stage win, but if there is a slip up from the big names any time soon they will certainly be thereabouts to pounce on it.

As a result of the win Cavendish has moved up to 9th in the points classification, although he still trails leader Thor Hushovd by over 50 points (35 points are garnered for winning a flat stage). Hushovd has extended his lead at the top of the classification to 14 points (over Alessandro Pettachi) after he finished 5th on the days stage.

With the majority of the peleton finishing together there was no change to the overall standings with Fabian Cancellara retaining the Yellow Jersey and Geraint Thomas the white. And with only two small cat-4 climbs on the day Jerome Pineau easily maintaind his hold on the Polka Dot Jersey.

Yellow Jersey - Fabian Cancellara
Green Jersey - Thor Hushovd
Polka Dot Jersey - Jereome Pinault
White Jersey - Geraint Thomas

Tonight's Stage - The trevails over the flatlands of central France continue and while there a few cat-4 bumps along the way they shouldn't be big enough to stop the stage ending in a sprint finish for a third straight day. And now that Cavendish has shown he has got his legs back it would take a brave man to tip against him taking back-to-back victories. I certainly won't be.

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