THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Mark Cavendish takes a second stage win while teammate Kim Kirchen retains the overall.
You might call it greed or an addiction to victory. Team Columbia — simultaneously eager to protect Kim Kirchen's overall lead and set up sprinter Mark Cavendish for a stage win — controlled the peloton for most of Saturday's eighth stage of the Tour de France.
The U.S.-based team kept an early break's lead to a manageable gap and then put the hammer down in the last 10k to reel it in and deliver its young British fast man to his second Tour stage victory.
Cavendish was delivered to the line by Columbia's big blue bullet train, with teammate Gerard Ciolek holding on for second, followed by Jimmy Casper (Agritubel) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank); Kirchen finished safely in the front pack to retain his overall lead for another day.
"It was really fast in the end," Cavendish said. "I was too far back in the last corner (with a little more than one kilometer to go) and the team did a great job to pull me back up. Ciolek gave me a great leadout. I took the sprint a little too long but I was able to hold the speed and win again. It's another great day for the team. We worked hard all day to control the stage and the team did a great job leading me in for the sprint."
Saturday's race was considered a "transitional" stage, a sprinter's stage linking two days of climbing. Still, it was far from flat, with four categorized climbs on a winding course between Figeac and Toulouse through the southern foothills of the Massif Central.
Laurent Lefevre (Bouygues Telecom) took off alone about 35km into the 172km race, and rode alone for more than hour, apparently oblivious to three others — including teammate Jerome Pineau — who were trying to bridge up to him. Eventually his team car made it up to Lefevre and told him of the chasers, and he sat up and waited for Pineau, Amets Txurruka (Euskatel-Euskadi) and Christophe Riblon (AG2R).
The four worked well together as Columbia and Thor Hushovd's Crédit Agricole team kept their lead manageable.
Coming into the final 15 kilometers, with the gap under one minute, Txurruka and Pineau attacked the other two on a rise, while Liquigas, Crédit Agricole and Columbia drove the chase. Riblon and Lefevre were absorbed but the lead pair held a tenuous lead before being caught in the final three kilometers.
In the finale, Quick Step briefly took control of the front in the final kilometer, but Columbia did not slow and brought Cavendish, Ciolek and Kirchen into the station on time and ahead of schedule.
Hushovd said he made a mistake in the final kilometer that cost him the win.
"I wasn't in good position in the final. I used a lot of strength the past few days. I honestly didnt make a good sprint. I was hoping for more today, but that's how it is sometimes. Mark Crenshaw was setting me up for the sprint, but I made an error on the final corner and lost some position. Cavendish was able to profit from my error," he said.
Race Notes:
- Rabobank's Oscar Freire was fourth on the day and took the green sprints competition jersey. "I was hoping to get the win today, but Cavendish is really fast right now," Freire said. "Every day I am better. I came here not in the best shape, but after a week of racing, I'm still hoping to win a stage. Now I have the green jersey, we'll see how it goes in the mountains if I can keep it for awhile. We have a strong team for the mountains, Menchov will be riding well for the GC.
