Tour de France 2010: Mark Cavendish's pyrotechnics blow field away

It was the day that the man L'Equipe call Le Pyromane set fire to the 2010 Tour de France. Mark Cavendish responded to heavy criticism about his form and riding style by producing a performance of power and bloody-mindedness to win the 187.5km fifth stage from Epernay to Montargis. Last year such a victory would have been considered routine; now the words flying round were "salvation" and "redemption". In many senses, it was trademark Cavendish. The run-in was narrow and suited a sprinter with an intense burst of acceleration, and the 25-year-old HTC-Columbia rider attacked it like he was settling a personal grudge. With his shoulders right above the handlebars and his head frozen in position, he reminded onlookers that no one else rides with their head so low, because no one else is so fearless. Certainly, no one could have wanted it more. After misjudging a corner and crashing on Sunday and being embarrassingly outgunned by Alessandro Petacchiyesterday, he needed to make a point to himself, to those who believe in him and, most crucially, to those who have started to question his abilities. "I don't know what happened yesterday, sometimes you have bad days," he said afterwards. "But today is a great sense of relief and a great sense of achievement. We haven't had the best of luck in the first days. But then [on Wednesday] we did have good luck and I couldn't finish off what the team did. "The team did an incredible job and I let them down. And it would have been easy for them to give up, but then they were incredible again today, rode out their skins, and delivered me to the line. I just had to cross it first this time." There are, of course, well-documented personal reasons for the dip in form – from the cold feet Cavendish experienced four months before his marriage to his childhood sweetheart to the most protracted dental saga since Martin Amis had his teeth fixed. But that did not make it any less surprising. We have become almost blasé about Cavendish's achievements over the last two Tours, where he claimed 10 stage victories, more than any British rider in history. He was so dominant that photo-finish technicians must have considered taking a sabbatical until he retired. You felt like he could have had a leg amputated and he would have still been the dominant sprinter in the race (this is not actually so far-fetched; earlier in his career, he made a point of riding past an older competitor with one foot dangling from the pedal). With this success came an unshakeable, and some would say unbearable, self- belief. When asked before this year's Tour about his new rival Tyler Farrar, a wholesome American who will be best known to British audiences for the creepy TV adverts for Transitions's react-to-light glasses that appear to go opaque when Farrar cycles past attractive brunettes, Cavendish said: "I will just start going 85% instead of 80%." Stage five's trials came not from the course, which was only fractionally longer and harder than the day before, but from the scorching weather, which topped 30C all day. Cavendish, in particular, had the look of a British holidaymaker who had overdone it on Bournemouth beach by the end of it. You had to spare a thought for the breakaway, who as usual were allowed to fry and go rotten like left-over meat at a barbecue. Today's chicken thighs were the dangerous Spanish road race champion José Iván Gutiérrez, the Belgian Jurgen van de Walle and one of the hopes of French cycling, 25-year-old Julien El Fares. They were almost eight minutes clear at one point, but were hauled in with four kilometres to the line. Meanwhile, on the course, we saw France at its most stereotypically French. Paunchy, middle-aged men in straw hats and Speedos they have no business wearing, check. Viaducts, sunflowers and an inventive use of hay bales much in evidence, check. Two men dressed as giant bulbs of garlic sitting outside a brasserie having a smoke, check. And now Cavendish back as "the fastest man in the world", check. He was not making such pronouncements himself – he has changed, remember – or being drawn on whether the day's victory could kick-start his challenge to win the green jersey. There are five more possible sprint finishes in the 2010 Tour, including another today as the race moves from Montargis to Gueugnon, 227.5km down the road. "We came here to the Tour de France with ambitions to win stages, and we are really happy to win the stage here and we will keep trying for more stages," was his uncharacteristically bland response. He wasn't saying it but you could tell, through the tears and the sunburn and the emotion of the day, that he was thinking it.