Two weeks prior to the world road race championships, Mark Cavendish (HTC Highroad) showed that he has built on his form since withdrawing from the Vuelta a España when he won the opening stage of the Tour of Britain.
Receiving a strong leadout, the Manxman blazed into Dumfries ahead of team-mate Mark Renshaw, former world track sprint champion Theo Bos (Rabobank) and Vacansoleil’s Barry Markus. The result boosted his morale and saw him state he was aiming for more success in the race.
“It’s incredible to win the first stage and get the leaders jersey,” he said after the wet finish. “If the weather had been better we would have been a bit quicker, but I think it would still have been the same result.
“Hopefully it will be a sprint again tomorrow. I am going to try and defend the jersey and try and get another stage win.”
The result is his second victory on an opening day of the Tour of Britain, with the rider winning the prologue four years ago. He’s missed the race since then, riding races such as the Vuelta a España, and said that he’s noticed a real difference in coming back.
“We had wicked support today. The amount of cheers and banners along the stage was brilliant,” Cavendish enthused. “Super encouraging. You wouldn’t expect this is Britain and it’s very different to when I last raced here in 2007. It’s very nice. This event is certainly growing.”
The early action came from two breakaway riders, namely Pieter Ghyllebert (An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) and Russell Hampton (Sigma Sport Specialized). They attacked almost immediately after the start and shared out the spoils between them, with Ghyllebert taking the intermediate sprints at Innerleithen (7.2 km), Moffat (70.8 km) and Dumfries (112.4 km), and Hampton leading the break over the category three climbs of Megget Hill (38.4 km), Devil’s Beef Tub (59.5 km) and Banks Hill (140 km).
That ensured they ended the day as the leaders of the sprints and mountains classifications, respectively, and Hampton was also named most aggressive rider.
Despite building an advantage of over six minutes, the two leaders were well within the range of the chasing peloton, which pushed on through strong winds and rain to overhaul the duo. They were caught inside the final ten kilometres, and from that point Cavendish’s team worked hard to set him up for the win.
“That was really hard today. Most of the day was a headwind and a very big one at that so with only two men it was a hard day out,” said Hampton. “It was worth it in the end, really big for our team and the icing on the cake was to come away with a jersey.”
For squads such as his and that of Ghyllebert, it is important to show the race organisers that they deserve the invite to compete with the bigger squads. “It’s really good, it shows all that hard work pays off and I just hope that I can carry on for the rest of the week now.”
Cavendish’s success plus the time bonuses for the win mean that he will begin tomorrow’s 130 kilometre race to Blackpool with a four second advantage over Renshaw and six over Bos. He’s had a strong season, his successes including five stages of the Tour de France plus the green jersey, and aims to keep building momentum towards the worlds road race.
He’ll be up against rivals such as Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Daniele Bennati (Leopard Trek) there. They were first and second on today’s final stage of the Vuelta a España, but Cavendish will be keen to buck the trend of the last decade and to try to show that it isn’t necessary to use the Vuelta to get rainbow-winning form. We'll know how successful that attempt has been in precisely two weeks' time.