Cavendish is king of the smooth Terrain
After a devastating loss to Italian cyclist Allesandro Petacchi on Stage four of the Tour de France, British cyclist-Mark Cavendish, has finally made a comeback—make that two comebacks.
Cavendish surprised and disappointed his fans on Wednesday when he simply lacked his usual force to sprint at the final leg of the race. Inspired by his loss, Cavendish has now won two stages of the Tour in two consecutive days-winning both Stage five and six. These wins prove once again that the spoils go to the best sprinter on France’s smoother terrains.
Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellera will hold onto his yellow jacket as he remains first overall in the prominent cycling race, but Cavendish impressed fans with a finishing time of 5 hours and 37 minutes on the 227.5 kilometre stretch.
Other impressive sprinters took in honours at the sixth stage of the race. American cyclist Tyler Farrar of Team Garmin-Transitions finished second and stage four champion Petacchi sprinted a respectable sprint to finish third. But Cavendish is still being hailed as king of the smooth terrain.
Both wins were spectacular as Cavendish’s fool-proof strategy remained the same: to sprint full-throttle through the last 200 metres of each Stage. But as he told Velonews, he is not a one-man team.
"HTC-Columbia is not a team of eight guys and me. I'm just the last rider in a nine-man unit,” he said. His Columbia-HTC teammates directed him flawlessly around a difficult finish with narrower roads on Thursday’s stage five and led him to an easy finish today.
Stage Five: Redemption
With great humility also came great emotions when Cavendish recovered at stage five after a devastating loss to Petacchi on Wednesday that had him furiously throwing his bike onto the ground. Cavendish admitted to TSN.
"It means everything to me," Cavendish said. "It's incredibly emotional. All the pressure and emotion built up, but it's finally over."
Cavendish attributed his comeback to a team who stood by him while others criticized him as having lost his cycling abilities after the upsetting loss: "Things didn't go our way yesterday. I let [the team] down massively, and it would have been easy for them to say, 'He hasn't got it,' like other people did,” he told TSN.
Stage Six: Confirmation
Team HTC-Columbia was definitely right to keep believing in the speedy Manxman who went on to win the sixth stage of the Tour that is rumoured to be a last opportunity for sprinters to reign. Among those who reigned, Cavendish outshone them all by picking up such great speed at the last 100 km that he looked untouchable as he crossed the finish line for a win that seemed breezy.
Farrar, still cycling with an injured wrist did his best run on the Tour so far and Petacchi made up for his lousy eighth place finish at stage fave, but they were both still dust in Cavendish’s wind. When asked about his second victory, he told Velonation: "Yesterday was really emotional, and today I'm really happy too...the boys did a great job working hard all the way through the finish and I can't thank them enough for that.”
Stage Seven: Ascent into the Alps
Cavendish might as well enjoy the glory now since the seventh stage of the Tour tomorrow promises an ascent into the Alps that certainly breaks the long, flat pattern of the last three stages. This will not be a leg for sprinters as the cyclists with the strongest legs will have an easier time mountain riding for four days on the 165.5 kilometre journey that starts in Tournus and ends at the Station Des Rousses.
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