Cavendish Claims The Stage... Again!

The Progress Report
The 198km 18th stage of the 2010 Tour de France, from Salies-de-Bearn to Bordeaux, began at 1.02pm with 171 riders in the race. The journey north included two intermediate sprints – in Castelnau-Chalosse (at 29.5km) and Hostens (150.5km). There were no climbs on a day when the conditions were mild with temperatures in the mid-20s at the start.

Four Establish An Escape
At the 11km mark, the first successful escape in what was a fast start to the stage, broke free. The men involved were: Daniel Oss (LIQ), Jerome Pineau (QST), Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ) and Matti Breschel (SAX). At 18km they had a lead of 30” while HTC, Lampre and Garmin send riders to the front of the bunch. They advantage increased steadily reaching 3’35” but never more in the first hour which was raced at an average speed of 45.4km/h. Lampre and HTC-Columbia were the only teams doing turns of pace at the front of the peloton for the second and third hours when the average speed of the race was 40.6km/h and 40.3km/h. With 45km to go, Milram sent two riders forward to contribute to the pace setting.

Bringing Back The Breakaway
The peloton steadily closed in on the four escapees: 1’55” at 30km to go; 1’10” with 25km to go; and 37” with 15km to go. The first to attack the lead group was Pineau (14km from the finish) but he was quickly chased down, then Oss when on the right side of the road and the other three conceded and waited for the peloton. They were caught 12km from the finish when Oss was ahead by 32”. Oss insisted with his attack until the 4km to go mark.

Sky Set Up The Sprint… And Cavendish Takes The Spoils
Once Oss was reeled in Team Sky came to the front and rode a solid formation all the way to the 800m to go mark. Barry led Lovkvist, Wiggins, Flecha, Thomas and Boasson Hagen in what seemed like it would be the perfect lead-out but then the peloton shifted all the way to the right and ‘Eddy’ got boxed in. Lancaster moved ahead and Hushovd was well placed to sprint down the right but Petacchi launched his bid for another stage win by going on the left of the road. Once Cavendish saw the Italian make his jump, he responded immediately, almost getting on the wheel of the Lampre sprinter but then surging down the center of the road and into the lead.
After he started his victory salute, he had enough time – and room – to look around and check out where his rivals were… and what he saw was that they were well behind! Julian Dean was the best of the rest, followed by Petacchi who replaces Hushovd as the leader of the points classification after the Norwegian finished 14th. Cavendish’s fourth victory this year puts him just 16 points away from the green jersey.
Alberto Contador finished 56th in the stage but will wear the yellow jersey and be the last rider to start the time trial of stage 19.