Mark Cavendish wins stage 11 while Schleck retains yellow jersey
Mark Cavendish has won the 11th stage of the Tour de France at Bourg-lès-Valence.
It is the third stage win for Cavendish in this year’s Tour, adding to the victories he had in stages five and six from last week.
Under the Flamme-Rouge, Cavendish’s Team Columbia teammate Mark Renshaw controversially set up the Briton by head-butting Julian Dean out of the way to open up the path. Cavendish was able to sprint to the finish line, and now moves up to fourth in the green jersey standings, 29 points behind Alessandro Petacchi. Since then, Renshaw has been thrown out of the Tour, with technical director Jean Francois Pescheux saying: "This is cycling, not fighting."
Andy Schleck retains the yellow jersey, maintaining a 41-second lead over last year’s champion Alberto Contador. Schleck picks up his third yellow jersey, and now surpasses the two his brother Fränk held and Luxembourg legend Charly Gaul.
Today’s stage was less strenuous than the previous ones over the last few days. The distance of 184.5 kilometres were going to favour the sprinters, with the Col de Cabre providing the only difficulty. For the first time in the history of the Tour, the riders departed from Sisteron, situated between the lands of Provence and Dauphiné.
Cavendish now becomes the most successful Tour sprinter in the last two decades, taking 13 stage wins in the last three years.
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