Tour De France 2015 Stage 5

German Andre Greipel won stage five of the Tour de France with Briton Mark Cavendish third in a sprint finish.

Lotto-Soudal rider Greipel overhauled Cavendish and Norwegian Alexander Kristoff and held off fast-finishing Slovak Peter Sagan, who came second.



Cavendish was seeking a 26th career stage win, and first of the 2015 race, but was outpaced as Grieipel won his second stage of this year's Tour.



Tony Martin remains overall leader from Britain's 2013 champion Chris Froome.


Team Sky's Froome finished safely in the peloton at the end of the stage from Arras to Amiens to remain second in the general classification, 12 seconds behind Martin.



The distance between Froome and his main GC rivals - Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana - remained unchanged.



Greipel's victory continued a successful few days for German riders after Etixx - Quick-Step's Martin claimed yellow on Tuesday when he made a late surge to win stage four in Cambrai.



"Three stages and the yellow jersey for Germany, it's unbelievable," said Martin. "We could not have dreamed of a better start. It's good for the fans. We've restored our credibility."


Much of Wednesday's stage took place in wet and gusty conditions, with numerous crashes throughout the day. The first of these came shortly after the start and involved four Cofidis riders, including team leader Nacer Bouhanni, who was forced to abandon with a wrist injury.

New Zealander Jack Bauer was involved in two crashes and failed to make it to Amiens, while another sizeable crash with 30kms to go involved Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, who finished third last year and had to be towed back to the main bunch by team-mates.

The stage took the peloton past numerous World War One battlefields and memorials, and Team Sky duo Froome and Peter Kennaugh laid a wreath at the Arras Memorial before the start while Orica-GreenEdge wore a special jersey honouring the Australians who fought.


Pierre-Luc Perichon launched an early break but he was reeled in shortly after the intermediate sprint and after a bruising few days at the start of the race, the pace at the front of the peloton slowed and a bunch sprint became increasingly inevitable.

By that point the field had split in two, with a trailing group that included the likes of Peter Kennaugh and French veteran Thomas Voeckler seemingly content to roll in more than seven minutes behind those in front of them.

At the front, it looked as though Cavendish was enjoying a superb lead-out but that changed when the riders turned a sharp bend close to the finish and it became every man for himself.

Greipel timed his sprint superbly into a very strong headwind and just had enough to hold off an incredible late surge from Sagan.

"The whole team worked well for this sprint," said the victorious Greipel. "It was the first bunch sprint, it's interesting - with 300m to go I thought I was boxed in but I saw an opening and went for it."

Greipel, known as the Gorilla, retained the sprinter's green jersey, while Sagan will continue to wear white as the Tour's best young rider when the race travels 191.5km from Abbeville to Le Havre on Thursday.


Stage 5 result

1. Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto 4hrs 39mins

2. Peter Sagan (Slo) Tinkoff - Saxo same time

3. Mark Cavendish (GB) Etixx - Quick-Step

4. Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha

5. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team MTN

6. John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant

7. Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ

8. Bryan Coquard (Fra) Europcar

9. Davide Cimolai (Ita) Lampre

10. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing

General classification

1. Tony Martin (Ger) / Etixx - Quick-Step 17hrs 19mins 26secs

2. Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky +12secs

3. Tejay van Garderen (US) BMC Racing +25secs

4. Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto +38secs

5. Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff - Saxo +39secs

6. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing +40secs

7. Rigoberto Uran (Col) Etixx - Quick-Step +46secs

8. Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff - Saxo +48secs

9. Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky +1min 15secs

10. Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Etixx - Quick-Step +1min 16secs

Selected others:

13. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana +1min 50secs

16. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar +2mins 03secs

17. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar + 2mins 08secs