It was the most gripping climax to a stage thus far in the Tour de France yesterday (Wednesday, July 6) when, with a steep final kilometre left to go, HTC-Highroads Mark Cavendish looked out of contention only to explode with a final flourish to take his 16th stage win since 2008. With close to a dozen crashes marring stage 5 the 164.5km fast and furious Carhaix to Cap Frhel route Cav was still languishing in 10th place with less than 100m left to fly when he made his break to bag the win in 3h3832. The victory saw less than a bikes length between him and second place Philippe Gilbert of Omega Pharma-Lotto.
Speaking after the stage Cavendish admitted the reserve he had found in the dying minutes had surprised even him, Normally I try to win by a small margin to save my strength, but there I had to give it everything I had. It took a lot out of me.”
With this 16th stage win Cavendish is already marked as the second most successful sprinter in the Tours 100+ year history; only Frenchman Andr Darrigade currently beats him with a record 22 stages although that feat took him 11years to achieve compared with the three that it has so far taken the Manx Missile.
