Cavendish takes second stage in a row
Mark Cavendish, the world’s best sprinter, has proved in two consecutive stages of the Tour de France that he is still the fastest rider in the world.
“It was a hard stage actually, up and down all day long,” said Cavendish to Tour press. “It was incredible to win today, you’re not going to shut me up—I’ve got a lot of talking to do and I missed out on saying all of what I wanted to yesterday.”
He never took a stage win in 2007, his debut tour, but between 2008 and 2009 he earned ten, and his victory in the sixth stage this year has lifted his total to 12, bringing his score to fifth place in the green jersey competition.
“I don’t know where I stand with the green jersey. It’s still far off but I’ll just plug away. We’ll try and win stages and see what happens. After the mix-ups of the first few days, it put us on the back foot and we’ll do what we normally do and I’ll see how I go.”
An early breakaway group was caught 10 km from the finish line in Gueugnon, where the best sprinters faced off for the stage win. The escape was initiated by Mathieu Perget in the first kilometer and the peloton did not challenge it. Perget, joined by Ruben Perez Moreno and Sebastian Lang, gained a 7:00 lead by the 20km mark, but they were being closely watched by four of Cavendish’s HTC-Columbia teammates at the head of the peloton. Perget was awarded the ‘Fighting Spirit’ award for the escape.
“This morning we had the instruction to try to slip in the breakaway, as we did yesterday with José Ivan Gutierrez,” said Perget. “Although we were expecting a sprint finish, it’s still a stage to try. On a stage of 230 kilometers, on a slightly hilly course with a little wind, you never know what can happen. An escape might just work.”
The escape reached a gain of 8:00 at the 63 km mark, before the peloton started reeling them in. At 25km from the finish line, the gap was down to 1:05. Dimitri Champion and Anthony Charteau caught Perget at 18 km, and the five-man lead was 0:21 ahead at 15 km. The escape was finally caught at 5 km and Cavendish attacked with 230m to go. The Brit took the finish for the second day in a row, sprinting past Tyler Farrar and Alessandro Petacchi.
Jerseys at stage six
Polka-dot jersey holder Jérôme Pineau performed in this, the most hilly stage so far, to keep his king of the mountain classification. Tomorrow the race moves into the mountains.
“Now, I have yet to win a stage and that’s what I’ll try to do tomorrow,” said Pineau. “One stage victory of the Tour of France it is something people remember, while a few days in the polka-dot jersey… we forget that quickly. This morning I spoke with Richard Virenque, and he also advised me to go on the attack tomorrow morning. That’s what I plan on doing and I will not surrender easily."
Green jersey holder Thor Hushovd finished 10th and maintained his lead at 118 points, four more ahead of Petacchi and 13 ahead of Robbie McEwen, the fourth place finisher today. The shortest time was awarded to the first 14 finishers.
“I’m aware that my lead in the points classification is getting smaller,” said Hushovd. “There are many guys getting closer and closer and if I want to win this jersey I have to do better sprints than what I’m doing at the moment.
Yellow jersey holder Fabian Cancellara finished 41st, three seconds behind Cavendish, maintaining his overall leader.
“Of course, it’s not bad at all but it’s not the same as if I won the Tour de France because it’s something a bit different. Of course, I’ll be very proud if I can have the yellow jersey for one more day. If not, I won’t be sad. Tomorrow we start with mountains and it’ll depend on how the race will unfold. Maybe I will still have the jersey after the stage tomorrow but maybe not. I’m prepared for the next phase…”
Geraint Thomas, white-jersey holder and second-place contender overall, finished 11th in the stage and gained three seconds on Cancellara.
“Maybe I’ll stand on the podium with the yellow jersey… that’d be cool, wouldn’t it?” said Thomas. “Just being within a shout of it is massive for me. I came to this Tour to have a go in the prologue and then look after Brad and it’s been a crazy first week. I never would have dreamt of this happening.”
With his confidence back, Cavendish is back in the race for the green jersey. The Tour will be in the mountains for a few days, but Britain biggest cycling star has found his form again.
“We knew it was going to happen, we knew it was going to be a tactical last climb but it played in our favor a little bit because it stopped us having to follow the chase at the end and we were able to just infiltrate into the lead-out. That was good, it was different to what we normally do. I just followed Mark [Renshaw] as usual and it was just a case of finishing off the incredible work that my team-mates did.”
Tags: