Post-Race Thread: Stage 5
A lovely spin through the French countryside. Three riders - Florent Brard, Nicholas Vogondy and Lilian Jégou - set off on the escape. Slowly, inexorably, the sprinters teams wittled away at the gap. In the final kilometer, Vogondy, current French National Champion, made one last attempt to steal the stage win from the determined sprinters. It was not to be. Led by Team Columbia, who did the vast majority of the work, the bunch came together in the closing meters. British sprinter Mark Cavendish shot out of the crowd to win the stage over Erik Zabel and Oscar Freire. This is Cavendish's first stage win. Thor Hushovd, with his fourth place finish, takes over the Green Jersey of points leader.
Here are the stage results and current general classification.