Events

Mark Cavendish takes third victory at Vuelta; Nibali holds lead

HTC-Columbia speedster out-kicks Saxo Bank's J.J. Haedo and Footon's Manuel Cardoso.

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HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish sprinted to victory on Thursday in stage 18 of the Vuelta a España.

Cavendish wins his third career Vuelta stage ... all of them this year.

It was the third win for the Manxman in the 2010 Vuelta and the fifth for HTC-Columbia.

J.J. Haedo (Saxo Bank) was a distant second with Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto-Fuji) third.

“It’s another victory for me, but it’s a victory for the team. A day after the time trial, we’re happy to win again,” Cavendish said. “Very technical, with a lot of roundabouts — we lost a little bit of position on a hill with about 4km to go and everyone swarmed up. We had to really work hard to get back into position. Peter Velits — sitting there in third — did a great job to pull into the wind. That’s how this team works, he’s sitting in third overall and he’s working for the team.”

American Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) just missed the podium, crossing fourth on the day.

There were no significant changes on the overall — Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) continues to lead the Vuelta going into Friday’s stage, a 231.2km slog from Piedrahita to Toledo.

“Today was nothing easy, because it was a short stage and it was very nervous in the bunch,” he said. “There was a lot of wind and there could have been a split in the peloton. It will be decided on the (stage 20) Bola del Mundo. (Ezequiel) Mosquera is the most dangerous rival, but I believe the others will attack, too. Tomorrow could be a dangerous stage, we have a strong team to control the stage.”

One for the sprinters

The 148.9km race south from Valladolid to Salamanca followed a relatively flat, short route with no rated climbs — a course perfectly suited for a field sprint.

An eight-man break was off and rolling by 15km:

Daniele Pietropolli, Lampre-Farnese Vini, 58th at 1:37:31
Alberto Benítez, Footon-Servetto-Fuji, 75th at 1:52:42
Juan Javier Estrada, Andalucia Cajasur, 93rd at 2:11:14
Pablo Urtasun, Euskaltel-Euskadi, 113th at 2:42:26
Dominik Roels, Milram, 117th at 2:51:27
Alexandre Pichot, BBox Bouygues Telecom, 120th at 2:53:59
Olivier Kaisen, Omega Pharma-Lotto, 124th at 2:56:40
José Vicente Toribio, Andalucia Cajasur, 137th at 3:14:42

HTC-Columbia, Garmin and Française des Jeux monitored the gap, which never got much beyond two minutes.

With 31km to go the margin was just 90 seconds. And 20km further along it was all over, and the sprinters’ teams began setting up their trains.

Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) took off with 10km to go, but he never got much of a gap and was back in the fold with 5km remaining.

The pace eased up and the pack bunched up, briefly, with 3.5km to go. And then Quick Step and Omega Pharma-Lotto came forward and ramped up the speed.

Then it was HTC, Garmin and Liquigas all battling for the front — and Cavendish launched off Matt Goss’ wheel and up the right-hand side of the road to the win.