Cavendish: The King Of The Sprint

The Progress Report _ The 12th stage of the 2008 Tour de France, from Lavelanet to Narbonne, began at 1.23pm. There were just 159 riders in the race. The absentees were the remaining Saunier Duval-Scott team riders: Ricco, Bertogliati, Cobo, De La Fuente, Del Nero, Jufre and Piepoli. A failed doping control for the winner of two stages and the leader of both the mountains and youth classifications meant that there was no polka-dot jersey in the peloton for the 168.5km stage. The race featured just one climb, the cat-4 col du Camperie at 57.5km. The two sprints were in Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet (at 76km) and Thezan-des-Corbieres (142.5km). The weather was warm with a tailwind of about 25-30km/h blowing the bunch to Narbonne. _ _ Getting Two To Escape… _ It was a fast start to the stage with the peloton countering every move. Cooke (BAR) crashed early in the stage and abandoned shortly afterwards. Eventually the right combination was allowed to gain time: Dumoulin (COF) and Gerard (FDJ) got clear at the 36km mark. The Bouygues Telecom team tried to chase them down but they soon settled down and assumed position in the middle of the pack. The average speed for the first hour was 51.0km/h. The maximum gain of the pair was 4’20” at the 55km mark. Teams of sprinters then came to the fore: first Credit Agricole, trying to set up the intermediate sprint for Hushovd but he was foiled by Freire who added another two points to his tally; then Columbia and Quickstep. At the 85km mark, the gain of Gerard and Dumoulin had dropped to just 50”. _ After the feedzone (85.5km) the leaders picked up the pace and there was a settling of tempo for the peloton. The advantage grew again, 1’30” at 94km. The average speed for the 2nd hour was 45.3km/h. Engoulvent (C.A) crashed at the 90km mark and sustained abrasions on his left side but remounted and finished the stage. _ _ Two Becomes Three _ Oroz attacked the peloton at the 55km to go, when the two leaders were just 35” ahead. It took about 1,000m for the Euskaltel rider to catch the two Frenchman. With 50km to go the trio led by 1’10”. Silence and CSC were near the head of the peloton and they had some cooperation from riders of the Columbia and Milram teams. Credit Agricole’s DS, Serge Beucherie, explained that Thor wasn’t feeling well, thus his troops wouldn’t contribute the pacesetting duties. With 35km to go, the advantage was just 35”. Dumoulin offered a brief attack 30km from the line and this simply increased the advantage momentarily: 1’05” with 28km to go. Liquigas and Quickstep moved to the front of the peloton with 25km to go. _ _ Setting ‘Cav’ Up… _ The Escape was caught 9km from the finish. Milram and Columbia were the teams in most control of the lead-out. Going into the final kilometer Hushovd did move forward but he, nor anyone else was able to match the pace of Cavendish who claimed his third stage win by the length of a bike. He started his sprint from about fifth position with 300m to go and beat Sebastien Chavanel by a little less than a bike length. “This was the hardest of all three sprint. It was really fast all day,” said the stage winner. “I’m glad I could do that for my team-mates especially for how hard they’ve worked in the last few days.” _ Cadel Evans (SIL) finished 20th and will wear the yellow jersey in stage 13 with no change to top order of the general classification.