Even without his roommate and most important teammate, Mark Cavendish showed yet again on Friday that few can get close to him when it comes to sprinting to victory in the Tour de France.
Cavendish seemed to come almost out of nowhere to take the 18th stage in Bordeaux, surging to the front in the final couple of hundred meters and giving himself such a lead that he had time to look behind him a couple of times and then cross the finishing line with his fist in the air.
It was his fourth victory of this year’s Tour and his 14th in just three years of competing in cycling’s premier event.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Cavendish had to win the race without the help of his usual lead-out man and roommate Mark Renshaw, who was expelled from the race after the 11th stage for head-butting an opponent.
“I’ve missed Mark. I missed him in the Pyrenees, I missed somebody suffering more than me,” Cavendish said. “I missed somebody to laugh about, about how hard it is.”
He dedicated the win to Renshaw, noting that the Australian rider made it easy to win stages, bringing him to the front of the pack.
PHOTO: EPA
“We’ve missed him a lot,” he said.
Second place went to Julian Dean of New Zealand and third to Alessandro Petacchi of Italy, who in the process took the green jersey of leading sprinter off the shoulders of Norwegian Thor Hushovd.
Hushovd acknowledged that his fight to retain the sprint title he won last year was over.
“It’s a big disappointment, but I realized step by step during the sprints that I’m suffering,” he said, speaking to reporters after ducking into his team bus to take off the green jersey in which he had ridden the stage. “I don’t have the same level as Cavendish and Petacchi, and today was just another sprint that didn’t work out.”
There was no change in the overall standings. Alberto Contador of Spain holds the yellow jersey by eight seconds from Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck.
Contador turned a slight shade of pink after meeting Hollywood stars Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise on the podium.
A day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy was the guest of race officials on the legendary Col du Tourmalet, the Hollywood stars got the chance to see the action close up.
Diaz and Cruise are in France to promote a new film, Knight and Day, and while they were eager to talk about the race and the country, cycling superstar Contador looked timid.
“Of course, I’ve seen a lot of your films, but it’s a little bit strange seeing you up close,” the Spaniard said.
Although Schleck is still hoping to cause an upset, Contador seemed sure enough of his eventual triumph to give signed yellow jersey gifts to the actors on the podium.
“Here is a yellow jersey, which I hope to win on Sunday,” the Spaniard said as he handed the jerseys to Cruise and Diaz.
Contador later admitted that was as far as he got conversing with the movie celebrities.
Asked if he managed to get Diaz’s phone number, he laughed: “I didn’t get that far.”
Contador is expected to outpace Schleck easily in a 52km time-trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac. Last year, he won the time-trial held in the latter stages of the Tour and took 1 minute 45 seconds off Schleck.
Contador also has the advantage of riding last, as the race leader, allowing him to know how all his rivals have done.
It is the last stage in which the positions at the top of the overall standings can change, as today’s final ride into Paris is traditionally a sprinters’ stage and a day-long victory procession for the overall winner.
Contador continues to insist that his victory is not certain until the time-trial is over.
“This is a hard stage that comes after 20 days in the Tour and this isn’t a race for specialists. I think tomorrow I will really have to fight a lot to win the stage and to defeat him,” the Spaniard said of Schleck.
Schleck also has not yet given up hope.
“I feel good. I have nothing to lose,” Schleck said. “He’s better, but I’m not bad too. We’re going to see a battle tomorrow.”
The fight for third place on the podium is also not decided.
Olympic road race champion Samuel Sanchez of Spain holds a 21-second lead over Denis Menchov of Russia, the winner of last year’s Giro d’Italia.
Among those hoping for a stage win tomorrow are world time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, Schleck’s teammate at Saxo Bank, who took the race’s prologue time-trial and held the yellow jersey for six days in the early part of the race.
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