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Britain’s Mark Cavendish of Columbia won the fifth stage of the Tour of California on Thursday, his second
straight sprint finish triumph in the race. Cavendish had marked this stage on his race calender as one he wanted to win. Team Columbia did everything right today, and delivered Cavendish in perfect position with 200 meters to go. From there Cavendish proved that he is the sprinter to be beaten. When asked if he felt that he could win any sprint in which his team’s lead out went to plan? He replied “Yeah, I can win them all”. And today proved it.

As he did in Wednesday’s fourth stage finish at Clovis, Cavendish edged Belgian Quick Step rider Tom Boonen. Boonen stated “I was just waiting for Mark to slow down, but he never did.” If the Tour of California is any predictor of the Tour de France, we are in for some serious fireworks.

Spain’s Pedro Horillo (Rabobank) was third in the longest stage of the nine day race, which brought the field 216 km from Visalia.

Two-time defending champion Levi Leipheimer retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey. Early in the race, and when a 6 man break started to get up the road, the Astana team went to the front and controlled the pace keeping the break at 6 minutes for almost the whole race.

His Astana teammate Lance Armstrong remained fourth overall, 30 seconds off the lead. Armstrong is still riding strong and looks to be in top condition. Tomorrow’s individual time trial will be a good showcase for Armstrong to prove that he is really back and has the legs to win the big Tours to come. As far as his performance so far in the Tour of California, Lance is giving his fans what they came out to see, that he can still compete at the highest level of professional cycling. Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France champion, launched a comeback this year after a three and a half year hiatus.

The Tour of California is his second race of 2009, after the Tour Down Under in Australia last month, and his campaign is slated to include the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France. It appears that there is no decision made at Team Astana as to who will be the Team leader at either race.

Friday’s sixth stage is a 24 km individual time trial that could prove decisive in determining the eventual winner of the race, which concludes on Sunday.

On todays stage it appeared that just about every school between Merced and Paso Robles let the kids out to view the race. It was amazing to see the crowds today, they were excited to see their favorite riders and by level of their screaming they let the peloton know.

Today was a long stage that took the riders on what can be considered a tough stage due to the lack of terrain diversity. Once out of Merced the riders saw a total of 8 turns, until they were into Paso Robles. They rode through the farm land which is flat and windy.

The 6 man break seemed to work well together, until they got to the only real climb of the day. At that point they started attacking each other, and pretty much guaranteed that they would be caught before the finish. The break included Peter Weening (Rabobank), Jeff Louder (BMC), Matt Crane (Jelly Belly), Cam Evans (Ouch), Robet Gunn (Fly V Australia), Glen Chadwick (Rock Racing). The “Most Courage” jersey was awarded to Matt Crane. When asked about the importance of winning the jersey today he stated “it is really big for a small team like ours. we get our sponsors some television time.”