Giro – Stage 5: Another Victory for Mark Cavendish

With his wife and daughter Delilah watching from the finish, Mark Cavendish was given an armchair ride by his Sky teammates and he never let them down with yet another victory

RELATED LINK: Previous Stage (stage 4)

Cavendish, the World Road Race Champion sporting the scars from his fall three days ago, held off the challenge of Australia’s Matt Goss and Italy’s Daniele Bennati in a long sprint timed to perfection by the Isle of Man rider.

The finale of the stage saw Team Sky show their rivals just who is boss of the sprint trains and while Rabobank had a go at trying to out muscle them and other teams too, Sky held strong. An attack from Lotto-Belisol never unsettled them and nor did the late attack by a rider from GreenEdge.

While chaos reigned all around the Sky riders, and it was far from a perfect leadout as other riders got in the mix, Cavendish managed to stay in the wheels of his teammates, getting closer and closer to the front as the finish line approached and his teammates peeled off.

As ever on such a stage, a small break went up the road and that meant the job of controlling the race fell to Garmin which helped give Team Sky a breather until the riders reached the business end of the race where on the only climb of the day, a number of Cavendish’s rivals were distanced.

That left just the short race down to the finish where Cavendish not only stayed upright and away from any wayward sprinters, he also out accelerated his rivals for yet another win as his tally fast approaches three figures.

Speaking to the Sky website later, Mark explained “We weren’t that bothered whether it was a sprint or not as I didn’t feel great three days after the crash. I was a little bit tired and we did really what the other teams have done and let the others do the work. But we were able to commit all our guys at the end and we took the race up with 10k to go and it was textbook work from the team.”

“The Colombians haven’t done much lead-out work before and it’s taken them a couple of days to get into it but then they did an awesome job to set us up in the lead-out today. Then obviously it’s all the guys that I’ve grown up with delivering me to the line. I’m super super happy!”

“I’m even more happy because my girlfriend and my daughter are here and I had my daughter on the podium. It’s the first race she’s been to watch me at and I’m so happy to make her proud and win for her here.”

With the help of the team Cavendish was able to position himself well over the tough final climbs and into the finish. The world champion talked us through the finish: “The guys were all around me on the climbs and we started in a good position so I stuck with them. I was never in any trouble. It wasn’t easy at all but I’ve good form and the guys really looked after me there so I was lucky enough to get over it in reasonable condition.”

“It wasn’t an easy finish. There was a headwind and I only went with 200 metres to go. It felt like a long time because of that headwind and I could see Gossy’s shadow but I was able to hold him off.”

Stage 5:
1. Mark Cavendish (Sky) 4:43:15
2. Matthew Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE) @ same time
3. Daniele Bennati (RadioShack-Nissan) @ same time
4. Robert Hunter (Garmin-Barracuda) @ same time
5. Sacha Modolo (CSF Colnago Bardini) @ same time
6. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) st
7. Elia Favilli (Farnese Vini) st
8. Manuel Belletti (AG2R-La Mondiale) st
9. Arnaud Demare (FDJ-BigMat) @ same time
10. Aen Jonas Jorgensen (Saxo Bank) @ same time
11. Damiano Caruso (Liquigas-Cannondale) st
12. Mickael Delage (FDJ-BigMat) @ same time
13. Nikolas Maes (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) @ same time
14. Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) @ same time
15. Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack-Nissan) @ same time

Overall

1. Ramunas Navardauskas Garmin – Barracuda 14:54:13
2. Robert Hunter Garmin – Barracuda @.05 secs
3. Ryder Hesjedal Garmin – Barracuda @11
4. Matthew Goss Orica – GreenEDGE @13
5. Mark Cavendish Sky Procycling @14
6. Geraint Thomas Sky Procycling @16
7. Manuele Boaro Team Saxo Bank @19
8. Christian Vande Velde Garmin – Barracuda @26
9. Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver Katusha Team @ 30
10. Alexander Kristoff Katusha Team