Wednesday, July 3, 2024 at 5:40 PM
Mark Cavendish made history today. The Briton won the fifth stage of the Tour de France and has thus become the sole record holder for the number of stage wins in the Tour de France. He previously shared the record with Eddy Merckx, who won 34 times in the Tour during his career. Cavendish was too fast for Jasper Philipsen and Alexander Kristoff in Saint-Vulbas.
A day after climbing the mythical Col du Galibier, the sprinters would have to ignore the fatigue in their legs. The fast men were back in action in the fifth stage of the Tour de France. From Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, a 177-kilometre stage took the riders towards Saint-Vulbas, near Lyon. With only two short climbs along the way, nothing seemed to stand in the way of a second mass sprint.
Very quiet initial phase
The baroudeurs understood this too. They showed little desire to attack in the first kilometres. In fact, nobody tried to get away in the initial phase. Until Oier Lazkano and Juan Ayuso, number four in the ranking, went into battle. A joke by the two Spaniards, who were soon caught up again. Men like Tim Declercq and Mathieu van der Poel also played along with some so-called pinpricks.
Little action in the early stages – photo: Cor Vos
After about 25 kilometres of racing, the game seemed to get serious. A group of four rode away, including the Swiss steam locomotives Stefan Küng and Stefan Bissegger. Alpecin-Deceuninck smelled the danger and decided to close the gap. The sprinter teams were less afraid of Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ), the next to try something. He took almost a minute on his own. However, it would not be a lonely day for the Frenchman, because his compatriot Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) crossed the line a little later. So we still got a leading group.
French duo in the lead
Russo and Vercher cycled together to a lead of almost five minutes. They got no more from the peloton, where Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lidl-Trek controlled the race. The sprinter teams of Jasper Philipsen and Mads Pedersen respectively quickly reduced the difference to three and a half minutes. Then they kept nibbling away. Russo and Vercher were the first to cross the Côte du Cheval Blanc (1.5 km at 4.6%), where Russo took the only point, and also rode in front at the intermediate sprint in Aoste.
The peloton sprint there was won by Mads Pedersen, who narrowly beat Sam Bennett for third place. Biniam Girmay and Jasper Philipsen came through in fifth and sixth place respectively. In the meantime, the peloton was briefly shocked by a crash. It was none other than Tadej Pogacar who caused this. The yellow jersey wearer was riding in the middle of the road, where a speed bump suddenly appeared. He braked, skidded and was able to avoid the obstacle himself. However, they fell behind him. Pello Bilbao, Jonas Rickaert and Matej Mohoric were among those who fell.
On to a sprint
Everyone was able to continue their way. They rejoined the peloton, which was now riding in the rain. At the same time, the pace increased somewhat, because the Côte de Lhuis (3 km at 4.9%) was approaching. On this climb, Russo (who received the combativeness award) and Vercher would be caught. Jonas Abrahamsen, the leader in the mountain classification, still had the chance to grab a mountain point. For the rest, nothing happened on the climb. All sprinters survived the last obstacle without any problems.
Russo in Vercher – photo: Cor Vos
Not everyone got through the kilometres after that without colour cracks. Although the sky had cleared up a bit, the roads were still wet. Partly because of that, there were a few crashes. First Alexander Kristoff hit the asphalt, a little later Christophe Laporte had a slide. Kristoff in particular seemed to have hurt himself, but the Norwegian was able to return. He apparently still wanted to mix in the inevitable mass sprint.
Cavendish takes his 35th!
In the run-up to that mass sprint, Lotto Dstny initially took the lead. With one and a half kilometres to go, the men from Alpecin-Deceuninck passed them. DSM-firmenich PostNL and Arkéa-B&B Hotels also reported at the front. Mark Cavendish was a bit further, but was able to come through the middle, saw a gap and then started his sprint. The 39-year-old rider from Astana Qazaqstan still had a big acceleration in his legs and created a gap over Jasper Philipsen.
The Belgian from Alpecin-Deceuninck could not catch up with Cavendish. The Briton took his 35th stage win in the Tour de France. That is one more than Eddy Merckx, with whom he shared the record for stage wins in the Tour de France.
Pedersen elected
Behind Cavendish, Philipsen came in second. Third place went to Alexander Kristoff, who had fallen earlier, who just managed to stay ahead of Arnaud De Lie. Fabio Jakobsen came in fifth. Mads Pedersen did not finish in the front: the Lidl-Trek rider fell in the sprint. It is not yet clear what damage the Dane sustained.
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