Greipel wins 5th stage of Tour de France; Martin keeps lead

Le Havre: Zdenek Stybar won a bitter-sweet sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday as his teammate and race leader Tony Martin crashed in the final kilometre.

Greipel was a consistent victor but annually kept out of the Tour de France squad because of the all-conquering Cavendish, who once made the harsh observation that his “rival” only won stages in smaller, “shitty” races.

Riders hoping for a stress-free stage after three days of intense racing were to be disappointed as the rain, which largely stayed away the day before, thundered down and turned the slippery roads of northern France into something of an ice rink.

Cannondale-Garmin support rider Jack Bauer withdrew from the Tour de France on Wednesday with a fractured femur after suffering through two heavy crashes on a rainy and windy Stage 5. “I moved right, (into) Froome, thought it was his fault”. But the yellow jersey is retained by Tony Martin.

In the year of Greipel’s maiden win, Cavendish posted five; in 2012 the British sprinter managed to match Greipel’s haul of three wins despite having to support Bradley Wiggins’s yellow jersey quest; in his debut year for QuickStep Cav took two wins against Greipel’s solitary scalp.

“Today I was just beaten”, said Cavendish, who in 2012 was named the best sprinter in Tour history by French sports newspaper L’Equipe.

Nibali got back up and finished the stage, and then shortly after Martin rolled slowly over the line with three of his teammates alongside him.

Quintana had blood dripping from his right arm and elbow as he crossed the line. It would be foolish to write off a sprinter like Cavendish at the age of just 30.

Spain’s Alberto Contador (Tinkoff Saxo) is seventh, 36 seconds behind, while Nibali (Astana) is 12th and 1:38 adrift.

The Tour offered its own recognition to the bravery of its riders after Australian Michael Matthews, battling against severely bruised ribs from Monday’s crash, was awarded the prize for Most Combative Rider.

The day’s three-man break included Eritrean Daniel Teklehaimanot, France’s Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar) and Kenneth van Bilsen (Cofidis) of Belgium.

“This has been like a movie, an emotional roller coaster at this Tour”, Martin said.

It means the absence of Marcel Kittel, a victor of eight stages over the previous two years who wore yellow during both editions after winning the opening stage, has not been felt. “But the wind and the rain made it anything but”, Van Garderen said. It starts from Livarot in the Normandy region – home to a cheese of the same name – and ends 190.5 kilometers (118 miles) later in Fougeres, in the Brittany region.

“Peter [Sagan] was second in the sprint, and it shows that he is strong”, sport director Steven de Jongh said after the stage.

Greipel, who also holds the points leader’s green jersey, on Wednesday timed four hours 39 minutes from Arras Communaute Urbaine to Amiens Metropole, France, beating Slovakian Peter Sagan to the second place while all top 65 finishers arriving at nearly the same time, reports Xinhua.