Mark Cavendish wins stage 18 in Tour de France
Mark Cavendish has won stage 18 at Bordeaux on the final Friday of the Tour de France.
It is the Team HTC-Columbia rider’s fourth stage win on this year’s Tour, and his 14th in his career, as he beat Julian Dean and Alessandro Petacchi to the finish line.
Alberto Contador will keep the yellow jersey after maintaining an eight-second lead over Andy Schleck at the top of the overall standings, while Petacchi, riding for Lampre-Farnese Vini reclaimed the green jersey in the points standings from Norway’s Thor Hushovd, who finished outside the top 10.
Today’s 198 kilometre stage favoured the sprinters after the difficult climb of the Col du Tourmalet yesterday. Cavendish currently lies third in the points standings and has a slim chance of taking the green jersey.
Even though he hasn’t had the assistance of his teammate Mark Renshaw after he was thrown out of the Tour after stage 11 for repeatedly head-butting Dean out of the way, Cavendish burst away at the end, and it was an impressive attack as his team were boxed in by the peloton. Schleck was also spotted getting treatment from the doctor for what looked like a saddle sore during the day.
Contador is still on course for a third Tour victory after keeping with Schleck yesterday, who was unable to pull out a gap on the Spaniard that he desperately needed, with the time trial tomorrow favouring Contador.
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