Cavendish clinches 2nd stage
Tournai (Belgium), July 2: Britain’s Mark Cavendish claimed his 21st victory on the Tour de France and his first as world champion Monday after beating German sprint rival Andre Greipel to win the race’s second stage.
Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara, of RadioShack, retained the race leader’s yellow jersey with his 7sec lead on Britain’s Bradley Wiggins (Sky) intact after the 207 km ride from Vise to Tournai in Belgium. Cavendish, the race’s defending green jersey champion for the points competition, has come into the race with, as usual, plenty of motivation to add to his record tally.
But because Sky’s big aim is to secure the yellow jersey for Wiggins’ in Paris, he has no train of sprinters to help lead him into the flat finishes where support can often be decisive. On what was the first flat finish of the race, that decision proved no problem for the Isle of Man rider.
He simply followed the trains of several other specialist sprint teams — Lotto, Orica-GreenEdge and Argos — and did some slick manoeuvring before following Greipel when the German launched his final drive for the line.
Thanks to his energy-saving efforts earlier, Cavendish emerged from Greipel’s slipstream to take the victory by half a wheel. “I left it a bit late, with about 200 (metres) to go, I should have gone past Greipel a bit earlier. It was quite tight at the end,” said Cavendish, who said he was even more buoyed by winning in the rainbow stripes.
“I wanted to show this jersey off, you know. I have massive respect for this jersey and everyone who's worn it. Not just on the Tour de France, but on other races as well.
“I’m really really happy. It’s very special to cross the line (as world champion). I look down and see the rainbow bands and it just fills me with pride,” Cavendish went on to add.
— AFP