Leigh Howard of Team Orica-GreenEdge leads the Tour of Britain overall classifications, Mark Cavendish dropped down to the 35th spot
After his superb performance during the stage 4 of the Tour of Britain, Mark Cavendish was looking good to secure an overall victory at the race.
The cyclist was leading the stage 4 classifications with a margin of 6 seconds over Leigh Howard of Team Orica-GreenEdge.
Boy Van Poppel of Team UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling, Luke Rowe of Team Sky and Rony Martias of Team Garmin-Sharp achieved the third, fourth and fifth position in the respective order.
It was Mark’s second stage victory after he won the stage 3 of the race where he restricted Leigh Howard and Aidis Kruopis of Team Orica-GreenEdge for the second and the third positions.
The Manxman could only enjoy the leader’s jersey for one day after he failed to perform during the fifth stage of the race.
He finished the race 11 minutes and 45 seconds behind the race leader and is now dropped down to the 35th overall position after the final general classifications.
Team Sky Sports Director Servais Knaven noted on the team’s website, “At that moment it was the point of no return”.
“Brad was in between the two groups waiting for Cav and the gap looked shorter than it was. Brad wanted to help us defend the jersey today and did everything he could to help Cav”.
“We hoped for a bit more today but it’s been a hard race up to this point and a hard season,” Knaven said.
“Luke was in the front group but dropped off in the crosswinds when everybody went for it. From that point on it was not possible to come back”
Marc De Maar of Team UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling wins the stage 5 of the race and bagged his third victory of the season.
Leigh Howard of Team Orica-GreenEdge finished 15 seconds behind at the third position and has now jumped up to the top overall spot after the stage 5 classifications.
He is holding the top overall position with a lead of 7 seconds over Boy Van Poppel of Team UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling.
Mark currently holds the third overall position after the stage 5 point’s classifications with a total number of 44 UCI points to his credit.
Poppel is leading the category with Leigh Howard at the second spot with 61 and 53 points in their back pockets in the respective order.
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