• Tour de France, Stage Five

Greipel victorious again; Cavendish comes up short

Andre Greipel celebrates winning Stage Five © PA Photos

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Froome storms home as Sky blow Tour open
  
• News: Sagan makes it a hat-trick; Cav left to rue crash
  
• Profile: Mark Cavendish | Bradley Wiggins

German sprinter Andre Greipel claimed a second successive stage victory at the Tour de France, edging out Britain's Mark Cavendish in Saint-Quentin.

The Lotto-Belisol rider left it late before surging to the front to deny Matt Goss and Juan Jose Haedo. World champion Cavendish, who missed out on drawing level with Lance Armstrong on 22 stage wins when he suffered a heavy crash on Wednesday, was powerless in fourth as Greipel swooped with a perfectly-timed burst.

The 196.5-kilometre route from Rouen to Saint-Quentin was dominated by a four-man breakaway, who went clear only three kilometres into the stage. A huge crash, caused when Garmin's sprinter Tyler Farrar brought multiple riders down in the middle of the main pack less than 3km from the finish, then saw Peter Sagan, leader of the green points jersey category, unseated.

None of the Team Sky riders were affected, while Jan Ghyselinck, a member of the original breakaway, made a charge for the line with 1km to go. However, the sprint crop overtook him in the closing stages, with Greipel taking glory.

Sagan is still in the green jersey on 155 points, although Cavendish scooped 11 points when winning the intermediate sprint to move up to 119 points. Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) keeps the overall leader's yellow jersey, with Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins seven seconds behind in second.

Stage Five result
1 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Belisol Team - 4:41:28
2 Matthew Harley Goss (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team
3 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank
4 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky Procycling
5 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne
6 Tom Veelers (Ned) Argos-Shimano
7 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Katusha Team
8 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre - ISD
9 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Yohann Gene (Fra) Team Europcar

General classification
1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan - 24:45:30
2 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling - 0:00:07
3 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quickstep - 0:00:07
4 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team - 0:00:10
5 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling - 0:00:11
6 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team - 0:00:13
7 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team - 0:00:17
8 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale - 0:00:18
9 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Sharp - 0:00:18
10 Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan - 0:00:19

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.