Mark Cavendish won the fifth stage of the 100th Tour De France.
195 riders minus Cannondale's Ted King who had been disqualified for not making the time cut off for yesterday's time trial, departed Cagnes-Sur-Mer, a town of 50,000 inhabitants which is surrounded by hills and over 4kms worth of beach, on a 228.5km stage to Marseille which has seen the Tour De France on 34 previous occasions.
Europcar's Yukiya Arashiro and Kevin Reza, Euskatal's Romain Sicard, Vacansoleil's Thomas De Gendt, Sojasun's Anthony Delaplace and Astana's Alexey Lutsenko were the first to break and took a five minute lead which meant that Arashiro who was 3.42 down on Orica GreenEdge's Simon Gerrans was the virtual leader on the road.
After eleven kilometres, there was a crash in the peloton with Astana's Enrico Gasparotto going down. Thankfully, no major injuries were sustained and he fought his way back up to the peloton.
On the D3 road, the Category 3 cote de Chateauneuf-Grasse climb came after 22kms and Thomas De Gendt took the two points on offer ahead of Antony Delaplace.
Moving onto the D2085, the gap to the peloton who included Birthday boy Nicholas Roche went out to 11.30.
The gap was down to 10.20 as the six escapers creasted through the Col de L'Ange category four climb with De Gendt taking the single point.
De Gendt also took the first sprint of the day at Lorgues beating Alexey Lutsenko to the twenty points. In the sprint for the lesser points, Andrei Griepel took the points from Sagan who elbowed Mark Cavendish out of the way.
With 74kms remaining the six out front took on the Cote de la Roquebrussane. Yukiya Arashiro took the single point as the gap came down to 7.26.
Team Sky's Richie Porte punctured and Kloden suffered a fall due to a mechanical but they were able to get back in the peloton.
Into Cuges-Les-Pins and Sicard and Delaplace were before the escaping quartet moved onto the D1 to take on the category four Cote de Bastides climb. It was no surprise that Thomas De Gendt took the point on offer.
The gap was down to 2.58 with 25kms to go, meaning that Arashiro was no longer the virtual race leader.
The tempo picked up as Orica Green Edge did the work on the front of the peloton who passed the vineyards around Cassis.
With 15.5kms to go there was a touch of wheels on the left and about fifteen riders including Christian VandeValde of Garmin Sharp who was the last to his feet whilst Polka Dot Jersey wearing Pierre Rolland was amongst those held up.
Up onto the D559 at the unclassified Col de la Gineste, 20 year old Alexey Lutsenko, the world U23 road race champion, shot away, followed by Razza. De Gendt and Asarhiro were swept up by the peloto led by Omega Pharma Quick Step with 8.5kms remaining.
The run in to Marseille, the 2013 European Capital of Culture, was on. Race leader was also to the fore.
The finish line was on the Avenue Pierre Mendes France at the end of a 500m straight after a big left turn at the 2000m mark. Chavanel was leading the way whilst German sprinters Andrei Greipel, Marcel Kittell and John Degenkolb all moved up into position.
Mark Cavendish was also up there and put in a brilliant finish to take his 24th Tour De France stage win in 5.31.51 ahead of Boasson Hagen and Peter Sagan.
Behind him, there was absolute carnage with about thirty riders going down including Gilbert. Race leader Simon Gerrans avoided the crash and retains his yellow jersey.
Cavendish said to ITV4's Ned Boulting. A little but frustrating but I don't normally win until the fifth stage. The final climb always going to be difficult. We never caught the break until the last minute but I am super happy and the pressure is kind of off. My team had to work harder than they needed to but it was good and I went for the line."
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