Mark Cavendish has won stage 5 of the 2024 Tour de France in a dramatic bunch sprint finish in Saint-Vulbas. The British sprinter edged out Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) to take his 35th career Tour stage victory.
The 177.4km stage from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne featured a couple of category 4 climbs – the Côte du Cheval Blanc and Côte du Lhuis – but ultimately came down to a bunch gallop. A crash inside the final 20km caused chaos in the peloton, with race leader Tadej Pogacar narrowly avoiding going down.
In the finale, Cavendish was perfectly positioned by his Lidl-Trek team and launched his sprint early to hold off a fast-finishing Philipsen and Girmay, who was denied a second straight stage win. Pogacar finished safely in the bunch to retain the yellow jersey.
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The stage was marked by an early breakaway that was eventually caught with around 50km to go. The rain and wind made for a nervous run-in, with teams jockeying for position ahead of the intermediate sprint at Aoste. Mads Pedersen took maximum points there ahead of Sam Bennett.
With two stages now decided by bunch sprints, the green jersey battle is shaping up to be a close one between the likes of Cavendish, Philipsen, Girmay and Bennett. Pogacar continues to lead the general classification, with Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard his closest rivals.
The Tour now heads into the Jura mountains for stage 6, which features a summit finish at the Planche des Belles Filles. The GC contenders will be looking to make their mark on the race once again after a couple of days for the sprinters.