Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) won stage 5 of the Tour de France on Wednesday.

Enjoying the fruits of his teammates’ work Cavendish sat behind a string of Omega Pharma-Quick Step riders during the final 10 kilometres and was able to cruise across the finish line to claim his 24th stage win at La Grande Boucle.

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) edged out Peter Sagan (Cannondale) in the dash towards the finish line.

Just as the main protagonists of the day crossed the finish line, yet another pile up occurred in the main field.

In the run in to the Tour de France Cavendish has been battling a bout of bronchitis and looked below par during the first stages on Corsica but looked to be back at his awesome best today. In an immediate post-race comment Cavendish told the media that he felt the pressure had been taken off his shoulders. For the Omega Pharma-Quick Step Cavendish’s win is a huge consolation after the team was narrowly beaten by Orica-GreenEDGE in yesterday’s team time trial.

“It’s been a little bit frustrating,” Cavendish said of not winning a stage in this year’s race until today. “But we were motivated today. I was quite happy to ride at the front today. I’m super happy, really, really happy. Now the pressure’s kind of off.”