Mark Cavendish wins 12th stage while Alberto Contador retains his lead in Tour of Giro d’ltalia - Cycling news
HTC-Highroad's Mark Cavendish gave a tremendous performance again and took his second sprint in the 2011 Giro d’ltalia stage race.
The race started in Castelfidardo and ended at Ravenna. The 25-year-old, Cavendish took a total of 4 hours, 17 seconds and 25 seconds to cover the distance of 184 kilometres.
The Italian rider, Davide Appollonio was in second place with the same timing as that of Cavendish. Lampre-ISD team’s Alessandro Petacchi was also in good form in the final kilometres, but grabbed the third position.
Recently, he also took overall lead in the tenth stage of 2011 Giro d’ltalia and he won the Tour de France Stage 15 in 2008, 2009, 2010.
After winning the stage, Mark Cavendish said, "I'm really pleased, the Giro is a very important race for me. There aren't any more sprint stages in this year's race, and I wanted to get another win here,"
Before the stage, HTC-Highroad predicted some problems in the closing circuit, so Cavendish controlled the break and managed to avoid the late crash.
After 5 kilometres, the group of four riders, Stef Clement (Rabobank), Spaniard Miguel Minguez (Euskaltel), Pole Michal Golas (Vacansoleil) and Italy's Davide Ricci Bitti (Farnese Vini) managed to get away from the pack. All of them managed to build a four-time
advantage over the peloton. But after 14 kilometres, the rest of the cyclists caught-up with them.
But HTC-Highroad set the pace in the front of the peloton and when the crash occurred in the final kilometre, Cavendish safely made his way out and crossed the finish line without any difficulty.
Cavendish spoke to the reporters after the race, "I'm going home this evening, the last week has no sprints. I'm a professional and I need to recover for the Tour de France."
Alberto Contador retained his overall lead with the timing of 44 hour, 55 minutes and 16 seconds. Kanstantsin Sivtsov was in second place with the difference of 59 seconds. Vincenzo Nibali finished third, he was 1 minute and 21 seconds behind Contador.
The next stage will start in Spilimbergo and end in Grossglockner and all the riders will cover a total distance of 167 kilometre.
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