The sprint in today's fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse was marred by a big crash that brought down favourite Mark Cavendish. The tumble was caused by Danny Van Poppel and Matthew Goss whose handlebars tangled but Van Poppel's Trek team refuse that their sprinter is to blame.

The 183.6-kilometer stage five from Ossingen to Büren played out similar to yesterday’s stage four. Omega Pharma-QuickStep policed the peloton keeping the day’s three-man breakaway in reasonable distance until the sprinters’ teams abetted the catch, perfectly timed once again to the final 10 kilometers.

From here it was another mad dash to the line. The only difference today the two tricky corners leading into an uphill - all in the final 300 meters - to make the finale a nail-biting battle for position. As predicted, the last corner proved to be perilous:  Danny van Poppel and Matthew Goss of Orica-GreenEdge tangled, which caused Goss to move right into Mark Cavendish. The domino effect caused both Goss and Cavendish to crash, and held up most of the peloton behind. 

“Again the team did a great job for me," Van Poppel said. "When we came to the last corner Goss came next to me and our handlebars tangled. He moved to the right and he took Cavendish with him. That caused me to lose a lot of speed - the front riders were already gone. Without that I think I would have bettered the 6th place finish.”

Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) won the hectic and precarious sprint, as Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimao) rounded out the top three. 

With the tight corners in the final 300 meters the ending sprint was an anticipated game of risk – for sprinters it was familiar terrain – and there was little wonder the last complicated corner resulted in riders on the ground.

“It was clear it was going to be a dangerous sprint with the corners at the end," sports director Dirk Demol said. "It was easy today, all day a tailwind and only three riders in break, so everyone was fresh for the finish, and ready to take the risk at the end that they have to take to do the sprint. 

"Danny was up there and he was just defending his place - holding his line with three of them going into the corner. Danny did not do anything wrong. To be 100% clear, he is there and has the right to stay there, it is not because he is a young and an up-and-coming sprinter; he has respect for all the riders in the peloton. Once you are in the sprint situation they begin to push against each other and he was just holding his spot. There was nothing wrong with what happened.”

Trek Factory Racing's director Kim Andersen was in the lead team car following the peloton as they crossed the finish line the first time before completing a final 30 kilometer circuit. Prior to today's start all the teams were aware the final turns were dicey, but when Andersen navigated the team car through and witnessed them firsthand, it was evident these corners were dangerous.

"From the first time we passed through the finish it was clear to me that a crash was highly likely and I said in the car, 'This is crazy, there is going to be crashes here.' Yesterday was the same thing and it is just a miracle that nothing happened," he said.

Tony Martin defended the leader’s jersey for another day as the General Classification remained status quo. Tomorrow’s stage six may prove to be too difficult for the pure sprinters as the race begins to ramp up to a final two day climax that includes mountain summit finishes both days.