Cavendish surges to stage win in Tour

Mark Cavendish defied a bout of bronchitis to claim a convincing win in a sprint finish at the end of stage five of the Tour de France. The Manxman was led out perfectly by team-mate Gert Steegmans and surged clear of Norway's Edvald Boasson Hagen and Slovakian Peter Sagan. It was Cavendish's first stage win of this year's Tour and his 24th in total. A large pile-up in the final kilometre split the peloton but Simon Gerrans retained the leader's yellow jersey. American ridereejay van Garderen and Belgium's Jurgen van den Broeck, who was fourth in last year's race, were among those to go down in the crash.