HTC-Columbia rider is the class of the field in the sprinter's city after surviving tough times in the mountains
Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) won the eighteenth stage of the Tour de France between Salles-de-Béarn and Bordeaux in a mass bunch sprint. The Manxman took his fourth victory of the race so far ahead of Julian Dean (Garmin-Transitions) and Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) at the end of the flat 198km stage.
After four tough stages in the Pyrénées it was the turn of the sprinters once more. With no hills at all in the stage, the inevitable breakaway would never have stood a chance.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to even start the stage. I’ve been sick the last four days with bronchitis,” said Cavendish after his victory. “Actually, there are a hell of a lot of guys in the peloton with the same thing so I’m not only one. But I finally had the fever yesterday and I was dead last night and never thought I could start today. We decided, ‘Oh, okay I’ll go. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t…’
“Even during the stage, I was speaking with Brad [Wiggins] and he said, ‘Are you sprinting today?’ And I told him, ‘Yeah.’
“He then told me that I’m not normally as talkative as I was when I’m up for a sprint” he continued. “But I told him that we didn’t really have the pressure on and if I don’t win, we know the reason… but it was so nice to see the guys working so incredibly hard. I was sitting in 10th wheel and the guys were pulling and pulling and pulling. The guys in the escape were strong and also very clever and, as we saw in the end, it was hard to bring back [Daniel] Oss – he did a brilliant ride at the finish – and we had to use Michael [Rogers] and Tony [Martin] to pull him back.
“It was up me to kind of freestyle for the last kilometre. I was jumping from wheel to wheel; I was back to my old style of sprinting and it worked out, so it’s okay.
“This one is for Mark [Renshaw]”, he said, dedicating the stage to his lead out man, who was ejected from the race on stage 11 to Bourg-les-Valence. “We actually planned a celebration. I was going write ‘Renshaw’ on my gloves but Bob said I couldn’t do stuff like that. But I think the whole team rode the way they did for Mark today. It was remarkable. We miss him in the team, we miss him when we’re racing, we miss him at the dinner table and I still think it’s a shame that he left in the circumstances that he did.
“I’ll never say never when it comes to the green jersey,” he added, referring to his chances of taking the points competition, “but I lost it in the first week. It hasn’t really been my aim. At the end of the day, I like to win bike races. I’ve always said, ‘If I win the green jersey by winning races, that’ll do.’ We’ll try and win again in Paris and see what happens.”
The break gets away but the sprinters’ teams keep it on a short leash
After 11km Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux) escaped, along with Jérôme Pineau, Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Doimo) and Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank), who’d been part of an unsuccessful break that went from the flag. While they were just a few seconds clear Alessandro Ballan and Marcus Burghardt (both BMC Racing) tried to bridge across, but were quickly pulled back by the peloton.
With the four-man breakaway settled the peloton relaxed and allowed the lead to grow; by the 20km mark it had grown to 1’15”. As the leaders crossed the first intermediate sprint in Castelnau-Chalosse after 29.5km the lead had grown to 3’25”. The peloton was now lead by HTC-Columbia for sprinter Mark Cavendish and so the gap was not allowed to grow too large.
After 45km the gap had grown to 3’40”, but this was to be the break’s high watermark. Alessandro Petacchi sent his Lampre-Farnese Vini to the front to work with HTC-Columbia and it gradually began to come down once more.
At the 63km point it had been reduced to 3 minutes. At this point race leader Alberto Contador (Astana) was forced to stop and change his bike, but the pace in the peloton was such that he was able to rejoin without any trouble.
By the time the four lead riders reached the feedzone in the town of Sabres, after 106.5km, the lead had been reduced to 2’20”. The gap was to stay at this level, fluctuating by around 10 seconds her and there, for the next 50km as the HTC-Columbia and Lampre-Farnese Vini teams maintained control of the peloton.
With just over 50km to go second placed Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) dropped back to the doctor’s car behind the peloton. The white jersey appeared to be complaining of a problem with his left hand, but after spending some time talking to race doctor Gerard Porte he rejoined his teammates in the peloton.
A third team joins the chase and the breakaway’s days are numbered
With 45km to go the Milram team moved forward to help HTC-Columbia and Lampre-Farnese Vini and the speed of the peloton began to rise. This was bad news for the four riders in the breakaway, who saw their advantage begin to decrease steadily. As the leaders passed under the banner with 25km to go their lead had been cut to just 1’25”.
The gap continued to fall and with 15km to go, with it reduced to just 33 seconds Pineau tried to go it alone. The other three quickly chased him down, but this was the opportunity for Oss to attack over the top.
Vaugrenard, Breschel and Pineau were quickly caught with 13km still to go, but Oss still had a lead of 37 seconds. The Rabobank team began moving forward with 11km to go, on behalf of triple World champion Oscar Freire, but the peloton seemed to have sat up with the capture of three of the four breakaway riders; Oss still held his lead as he made his way towards the centre of Bordeaux.
Liquigas rider just won’t give up
The sprinters’ teams soon reorganised themselves though and the chase began once more. Oss’ background on the track appeared to be standing him in good stead on the flat, smooth roads though and he was taking a lot of pulling back.
As the Italian passed under the 5km to go banner he still held 11 seconds on the chasing peloton. He was visibly tiring though, after spending more than 180km off the front of the race, and on the wide straight roads he was caught with just 3.6km to go.
As the peloton relaxed slightly after catching Oss, Linus Gerdemann (Milram) tried to jump clear on the opposite side of the road. The headwind was too strong though, and he could only get a few metres clear before he was pulled back.
Team Sky were the next to move to the front with almost the entire team working for Edvald Boasson Hagen, while all the other teams organised their sprinters behind them; Bradley Wiggins lead into last kilometre, with Juan Antonio Flecha and Geraint Thomas behind him.
The sprinters arrive in the sprinters’ city
As they entered the finishing straight, the Sky riders found themselves overtaken by the Cervélo TestTeam as Brett Lancaster lead Thor Hushovd, in the green jersey, to the front. All the sprinters were lined up behind the Norwegian, waiting for him to launch his sprint.
As the others were watching Hushovd, Petacchi jumped to the other side of the road and launched his sprint, hoping to take the others by surprise as he had in Reims on stage 4.
Cavendish spotted the move though and jumped from Hushovd’s wheel to Petacchi’s and then opened up his own sprint. Once he was up to speed the Manx Express pulled clear of the rest, having time to look over his shoulder before crossing the line with daylight between himself and the others.
Dean managed to come past Petacchi in the last few metres to take second, while the Italian held on for third. Robbie McEwen finished strongly to take his fifth 4th place of the race.
Hushovd found himself swamped by all the others and could only manage 14th place, and so Petacchi takes the green jersey from him once more.
Other than Contador’s bike change and Schleck’s visit to the race doctor, the leading overall classification riders spent an uneventful day sitting comfortably in the peloton. There were no changes to the standings, with Contador holding onto his lead over Schleck.
Result stage 18
1. Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Columbia
2. Julian Dean (NZl) Garmin-Transitions
3. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini
4. Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha
5. Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
6. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Sky
7. Jürgen Roelandts (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto
8. Jose Rojas (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
9. Grega Bole (Slo) Lampre-Farnese Vini
10. Ruben Perez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
Standings after stage 18
1. Alberto Contador (Spa) Team Astana
2. Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 8s
3. Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi @ 3’32”
4. Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank @ 3’53”
5. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto @ 5’27”