New Zealand cyclist Greg Henderson handed teammate Andre Greipel a second straight Tour de France stage victory with another successful lead-out ride overnight.
In yet another crash-marred finish, Greipel of Germany led a frenzied bunch sprint to win the fifth stage, a mostly flat 196.5km trek from Rouen to Saint-Quentin almost tailor-made for sprinters.
As the peloton overtook three breakaway riders with barely 100 metres left, Greipel was given the perfect lead-out by Henderson before wheeling in front to finish a split-second ahead of Australian Matt Goss.
But as Henderson later revealed on Twitter, the best-laid plans of the Lotto Belisol team nearly came undone when Greipel narrrowly avoided being caught in a pile-up with 3km to go.
"Very satisfying result," Henderson said. "Found [Greipel] about 40 wheels back after the crash. We got back to Lotto-Belisol train at 1km. Boom! 2 from 2.
"So happy with the team. Complete faith and confidence in each other."
Along with the near-miss, Greipel's victory was all the more impressive considering the presence of sprint king Mark Cavendish. The British rider was caught up in yesterday's crash and was unable to challenge Greipel at the line, but had no such problems today.
However, Greipel proved too fast for the 21-stage winner who could manage only fifth.
The German rider, who claimed his third career victory in the Tour de France, paid tribute to his teammates following the win.
"I have the best team in the bunch so it's not such a surprise."
The help of that team has seen Greipel rise to third in the green jersey sprint classification, with 132 points, 22 behind leader Peter Sagan. Henderson sits in 56th place in that standing and 70th overall, 4m 01s behind race leader Fabian Cancellara.
Tonight's sixth stage - a 207.5km jaunt from Epernay to Metz - offers the last leg in the northern flats this week to favour sprinters.
