MARSEILLE, France // British sprinter Mark Cavendish finally hit form to win Stage 5 of the Tour de France in a sprint finish on Wednesday and Australian Simon Gerrans kept the yellow jersey.
Cavendish made a poor start to the Tour but this 24th career Tour stage win will boost his confidence and launch his bid to win the sprinters' green jersey.
"I'm super happy," Cavendish said. "Now the pressure's off and hopefully it has started the ball rolling."
With a few hundred metres to go, Cavendish sat on his teammate Gert Steegmans's wheel and got into a perfect position to attack and held off a challenge from Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen.
Peter Sagan, who leads the green jersey contest, finished third.
"To be fair, today the sprint wasn't too difficult for me. I didn't do anything, If I'd have lost that today I would have let the guys down," Cavendish said. "Gert went with such speed that I just followed."
Cavendish is second in the sprinters' classification and pulled back to within 35 points of Sagan.
"I'm motivated, I've got good form and a great team around me," Cavendish said, praising Steegmans. "He did a great job."
Andre Darrigade, who won 22 Tour stages as a sprinter, warmly greeted Cavendish after his win.
"Really, really a true gent," Cavendish said of the 84-year-old Frenchman. "I'm proud to have met him."
Cavendish needs one more stage win to tie Andre Leducq for third on the Tour's all-time list of stage winners, and he could do that today as Stage 6 again favours sprinters.
If he does that, he could eye Bernard Hinault's 28 wins, the second-highest total after Eddie Merckx's imperious record of 34.
While Cavendish was raising his arms in triumph, behind him there was more chaos as about a dozen riders hit the tarmac in a crash.
It was unclear who caused it. It appeared that BMC rider Brent Bookwalter, sitting in the middle left of the pack, was the first to fall and others tumbled around him. American veteran Christian Vande Velde was among them and received treatment on the side of the road.
Gerrans held off Sagan to win Monday's third stage in a sprint finish and helped his Orica Greenedge team to narrowly win Tuesday's time trial on Stage 4 in a Tour record time.
It was enough to take the leader's jersey from Belgian Jan Bakelants.
Gerrans is only the sixth Australian to wear the yellow jersey – the first was Phil Anderson in 1981 – and to celebrate Orica Greenedge took the start line with yellow helmets on.
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