Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) claimed his fifth stage win of this year’s Giro d’Italia today. With the victory he sealed the red jersey.

Cavendish finished ahead of Sacha Modolo (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox) and Elia Viviani (Cannondale Pro Cycling).

Before the stage, Cavendish sat 11 points adrift of Nibali in the points classification. At the first sprint of the day, Cavendish took eight points, and thus the deficit was reduced to three points.

Coming to Brescia, the peloton would tackle a 4.6 kilometre circuit seven times. Giairo Ermeti (Androni Giocattoli) was the first rider to attack, and the QuickStep team became nervous. The second intermediate sprint of the day was supposed to be in three laps' time, but Cavendish and his team knew it was dangerous having the Italian up there.

Cavendish had to open up several sprints during the stage, but with his stage win, the Manxman once and for all sealed the points classification.

"I'm so happy to have won. I tried to win the red jersey last year but missed it by a point. This time I got it. It's always difficult to win the red jersey but we got the stages we wanted and the jersey we wanted," he said, again happy to share his success with his teammates.

"The team did an incredible job, I couldn't have done it without them. Every stage we contested, we won. They helped me in the sprints and in the mountains, they were always there to help me. It's difficult not to win with this team."

Now, Cavendish has joined Eddy Merckx, Laurent Jalabert, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov and Alessandro Petacchi as the only riders to win the points jersey in all three Grand Tours.

"The Giro points jersey is the most difficult to win for the simple fact that there are less sprint stages and more uphill finishes," he said.

"Last year I went full gas for three weeks and lost for one point. There's nothing you can do about it, at the Giro the points classification is more suited to climbers."