Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) took his revenge over former teammate André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto), beating him to the line on the eleventh stage of the Tour de France between Blaye-les-Mines and Lavaur. The Manxman launched his sprint from behind leadout man Mark Renshaw, in the pouring rain of the finishing straight, and managed to hold off the German as he tried to come around. Stage three winner Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervélo) was third.
The stage was dominated by a six-man breakaway that escaped after 10km, and was not only closed down with 2km to go.
"I have to thank my team-mates for the work they did today,” said Cavendish at the finish. “Even the guys who are in the top ten overall gave it one hundred percent and that shows what a great team we are."
Cavendish’s third victory in this year’s Tour comes in a race where opportunities for the sprinters are few and far between. The Manxman knows that his next two targets are likely the only chances he will get.
"There are two more bunch sprints in this year's race,” he explained, “one in Montpellier and the other in Paris and I want to try to win both of them."
While he has now won eighteen stages in the Tour de France, many commentators have said that the Manxman will not truly join the list of greats until he has won the green points jersey in Paris. This is something that, as well as stage victories, he is targeting this year, meaning that he is also having to compete for the intermediate sprints.
"It's not easy fighting for the green jersey,” he said, ‘but I'm going to keep going and try to keep hold of it right through to the end."
Another stage for the sprinters, but a good one for breakaways too
At 167.5km, and with the race hitting the Pyrénées the next day, the eleventh stage of the Tour de France was almost certainly another one for the sprinters. There were only two classified climbs, one 3rd and one 4th category, but, like the day before, there was to be very little flat on the course as it traversed the rolling Tarn department. The intermediate sprint would come at 85km, at almost exactly midway through.
Race leader Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) expected to hold on to his yellow jersey quite comfortably, providing nobody threatening to him managed to get into what was an inevitable breakaway.
The stage began without last year’s top Frenchman John Gadret (AG2R La Mondiale), who withdrew from the race citing physical and psychological tiredness after finishing fourth in the Giro d’Italia.
Another “Escape Royale” for the Europcar team
There were a number of attacks in the opening kilometres out of Blaye-les-Mines, but none was successful until Mickaël Delage (FDJ) broke away after 13.5km. The Frenchman was joined by Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Lars Boom (Rabobank), Andriy Grivko (Astana), Tristan Valentin (Cofidis) and Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun), and by the 17km mark the six riders had a lead of 1’35”.
As happened on stage ten, there was nobody in the break that was remotely a threat to the lead of Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) – Perez being the best placed at 30’41”. The French team felt, once again, that there was no need for it to police the break and so, as the lead grew, it fell upon the sprinters’ teams to set the pace of the peloton.
After less than 25km, as the break’s lead was creeping up over 3’30”, HTC-Highroad sent Danny Pate and Lars Bak to the front.
The climbs begin and the breakaway’s lead reaches its limit
As Boom led the leaders over the 3rd category Côte de Tonnac, after 28.5km, the gap was up to 4’15”. It was to reach its maximum of 4’25” at the 33km point, before the HTC-Highroad team began to gradually peg it back.
After 75km the six riders led by 3’35”, where it was to sit for some time. As it approached the intermediate sprit in Gaillac, they were still all working together well. Delage was allowed by the other five riders to take the first prize across the line; it was not to be quite so courteous when the peloton arrived.
Mark Cavendish’s HTC-Highroad put the entire team on the front, as it does on the approach to stage finishes, but, as they passed under the one kilometre to go banner, the Omega Pharma-Lotto train flew past to take control. The American team was not to be denied though and seized back the front of the peloton as the line approached.
Omega Pharma-Lotto’s stage ten winner André Greipel was to lead out green jersey holder Philippe Gilbert to the line but, as HTC-Highroad went through its well rehearsed routine, the two riders became separated. Cavendish took the sprint for seventh place, ahead of José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar).
Gilbert could only manage 11th, losing a few more points to Cavendish and Rojas in the race for the green jersey.
The chase is on as the peloton enters the second half of the stage
With the breakaway’s advantage having been static at around 3’30” for some kilometres, Garmin-Cervélo sent Ryder Hesjedal forward to help the chase, on behalf of Farrar. With 60km to go it had reduced slightly to 3’20”, but was now coming down consistently.
Omega Pharma-Lotto’s Sebastian Lang soon joined the chase on Greipel’s behalf and, at the 50km to banner, the sextet’s advantage was down to 2’44”. At the 40km to go point the leaders held little more than two minutes, but then the rain started to fall.
As the six leaders hit the bottom if the 4th category Côte de Puylaurens, with 36km to go, their lead had dropped to 1’40” over the peloton. This was also the point though, that the course was swinging around from its southeasterly route to a northwesterly one. The tailwind that the riders had been enjoying for the past 80km would become a headwind as they headed to the finish.
Sky became the next team to join the chase, with Simon Gerrans moving to the front on behalf of Edvald Boasson Hagen. Unlike the previous day’s final climb, though, when Gilbert forced the pace to drop the sprinters, the teams on the front were careful to keep the speed steady. Consequently, as Delage led over the top of the climb, with 32km to go, the peloton followed over after 1’34”.
With the real danger of splits as the wind was now buffeting the peloton, many of the race favourites were being brought forward by their strong domestiques.
Here comes the peloton, and here comes the rain
Most of the sprinters’ teams were represented at the front of the peloton, but it was still HTC-Highroad doing the lion’s share. They had reduced the gap to 1’15” as they passed under the 20km to go banner, but the six up front were still working hard together.
Inside the final 20km, with the gap reduced to little more than a minute, the rain began to fall even harder. Even if it was to stop it meant a wet, and potentially slippery, finishing straight.
The peloton was now riding hard, under the impetus of most of the sprinters’ teams, but its efforts were almost being matched by the six riders ahead. With 10km to go they still held 31 seconds, and the gap was proving tough to close.
HTC-Highroad was putting everything into the chase, having worked hard to keep the break in check for most of the stage. There as beginning to be a danger that the team would be forced to do too much too soon as Matt Goss was tailed off with seven kilometres still to go. Luckily for the American team though, Lampre-ISD took over with six kilometres to go on behalf of Alessandro Petacchi, and the breakaway’s lead suddenly tumbled.
As they passed under the five kilometre to go banner the six fugitives had just nine seconds, and was in plain sight of the peloton on the long, straight, tree-lined Napoleonic road. Sensing the others were tiring, Boom suddenly attacked off the front, and quickly gained a lead over his five former colleagues.
Boom refuses to go quietly but has no chance of staying clear
With three kilometres to go the five others were absorbed by the speeding peloton, but Boom was hanging on just a few seconds clear. HTC-Highroad was in full cry now, but the former cyclocross World champion was refusing to lie down.
Gradually the weight of numbers began to tell, though, and he sat up just outside the two kilometre banner.
Garmin-Cervélo then took over with David Millar on the front, ahead of World champion Thor Hushovd, Julian Dean and then Tyler Farrar. As they passed under the flamme rouge, Team Sky then tied to take control to set up Boasson Hagen.
Suddenly Renshaw burst from the pack with Cavendish in his accustomed place on the Australian’s back wheel, and the partnership that had been missing in the previous stage kicked into action. Cavendish came around Renshaw’s right hand side, with Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) on his back wheel; just as he’d done the day before, Greipel went to the left.
It’s Cavendish versus Greipel again!
The German switched across the road though, having started from such a long way back, and got himself into the Manxman’s slipstream. There was to be no coming around though, as, not only had HTC-Highroad got the leadout right, but Cavendish had also timed his sprint to perfection. He crossed the line two lengths clear to take his third stage of the race so far, and his eighteenth in the Tour de France.
Greipel managed to hold off Farrar in his lunge for the line, with Galimzyanov and Boasson Hagen in their wake. Because Rojas could only finish seventh, with Gilbert back in 66th, Cavendish’s victory was enough to give him the overall lead in the green jersey classification.
The vast majority of the peloton finished in the same time behind Cavendish, with all of the overall contenders and riders from the top of the standings present. Voeckler, without having to get his Europcar team to do much work for the second successive day, holds on to the yellow jersey.
“It was very nervous and that was the main difficulty of the day,” said Voeckler after the stage. “It wasn’t so physically demanding but the anxiety made it hard. We all wanted to avoid any crashes and we all wanted a good position in the bunch. That’s what made it so nervous.”
The Frenchman would not have it so easy the next day though, as the race heads for the Pyrénées.
“I will try, but I honestly expect to lose the jersey tomorrow,” he admitted. “That doesn’t mean that I won’t fight. We’ll see...”