2011 Tour de France, Stage 5

Mark Cavendish was back to his sprint winning ways with his 16th Tour de France stage win in Cap Fréhel after 158 km. He had to do it the hard way, without the benefit of his lead out train, coming from behind other top sprinters. Second and third were Philippe Gilbert and Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil.

The windy day and a nervous peloton led to many crashes and accidents among the big names: Alberto Contador, Janez Brajkovic, Tom Boonen, Robert Gesink, Yaroslav Popovych, and Nicki Sörensen (taken out by one of the TV motorcycle).

Navigating the dangers successfully, Thor Hushovd retained the yellow jersey.

Petacchi felt that his team worked perfectly leaving him in the jet stream of HTC. He found himself having problems steering his bike and discovered after the finish that his front wheel was punctured. "What a pity! I'm sad because my teammates supported me in the best way and I could not give them a good result," Petacchi said.

Top 10 GC:
1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Team Garmin-Cervelo 17:36:57
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:01
3 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:00:04
4 David Millar (GBr) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:00:08
5 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack 0:00:10
6 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling
7 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:12
8 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Leopard Trek
10 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek

The best placed Italians are:
21 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:01:03
25 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD 0:01:12

Photos: Sirotti

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