David Brailsford happy with Mark Cavendish’s Tour performance
Team Sky Sports Director David Brailsford appreciated Mark Cavendish’s performance during the Tour de France 2012.
He cited, "The finish was a little bit less technical so that was a good thing. But credit to Mark. He's shown there why he's the best sprinter in the world".
"He popped up on Greipel's wheel and how he got there who knows?”
“That's why we've got every confidence in him even though there's a lot of talk about him needing a lead out train”.
"Of course, if he has a lead out train then he can perform miraculously”.
“However, even without it you shouldn't forget how he's got to where he is. He's brilliant at surfing that peloton and positioning himself,” he concluded.
The Manxman is enjoying a terrific season and made full use of his splendid form to bag his 21st stage win at the French race.
He succeeded during the 207.5 kilometre stage2 of the race and restricted his major opponents.
Mark finished the race in a quickest time of 4 hours, 56 minutes and 59 seconds and occupied the top podium position after a photo-finish.
Andre Greipel of Team Lotto Belisol, Matthew Harley Goss of Team Orica GreenEdge, Tom Veelers of Team Argos-Shimano and Alessandro Petacchi of Team Lampre-ISD occupied the next four positions.
Mark had a terrific Tour last year with as many as five stage victories in his bag including the stage 5, stage 7, stage 11, stage 15 and stage 21 of the race.
He managed to secure the first overall position after the final point’s classifications with a total number of 334 UCI points to his credit.
Jose Joaquin Rojas, Philippe Gilbert, Cadel Evans and Thor Hushovd achieved the next four positions with 272, 236, 208 and 195 UCI points respectively.
Cavendish has secured six stage victories during the first half of the 2012 season but his biggest moment of success came with an overall victory at the ZLM Toer.
It was the first overall victory of Mark’s career and it has really boosted his confidence for the Tour de France.
The 27-year-old cited before the start of the race that he will target the point’s classifications as well as the overall classifications during the coming race.
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