Five-star win for Cavendish

MARK CAVENDISH claimed a British record ninth Tour de France stage victory yesterday on a day when Ireland’s Nicolas Roche continued to impress.

Manxman Cavendish won his fifth stage of this year’s Tour to break Barry Hoban’s mark set in 1975.

Cavendish held off his rival for the green jersey, Thor Hushovd, to win the 178-kilometre 19th stage from Bourgoin-Jallieu to Aubenas and close the gap on the Norwegian to 25 points.

Spain’s Alberto Contador retained the yellow jersey with a four minutes 11 seconds lead over Luxemburg’s Andy Schleck despite being trapped in a late split with other top guns.

American Lance Armstrong, third overall, gained four seconds in the incident to move 1:10 behind Schleck.

“You can lose the Tour everyday and today, I kind of slowed down by the end because of the rain,” said Contador. “I would like tomorrow’s stage to be quiet although I know it’s not what the fans want,” he added with a smile.

“This Tour has been extremely difficult, I am savouring it twice as much as I would have normally.”

The category two final climb looked like it would put paid to Cavendish’s hopes of victory, but his Colombia team-mates gave him the platform to attack 300 metres out.

German Gerald Ciolek (Milram) finished in third, while Astana rider Alberto Contador retained the race leader’s yellow jersey, four minutes 11 seconds ahead of Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), with seven-time winner Lance Armstrong (Astana) third.

It was a day for another great performance from Nicolas Roche, who finished eighth on the stage. Roche is now 23rd in the overall standings.

A sprint finish – and Cavendish’s chances of a fifth victory – had looked unlikely given the gruelling climb up and dangerous descent down the 787m Col de l’Escrinet at the end of the stage.

A shower made the fast descent even more treacherous and even though the rain eased it still made for a dangerous finish.

And the Briton paid tribute to the effort of his team-mates, in particular German youngster Tony Martin, who gave him the opportunity to launch his sprint for victory.

“I said ‘just wait with me, just wait with me on the climb’,” he said. “It was painful but I hung in there – it was so hard.

“Tony (Martin) took me to about 250, 300 (metres out) on the slightly uphill finish. It was too far (out) for me to go but I had to and gave it everything for the line. It was amazing.”

French rider Laurent Lefevre attacked 25km from the finish and was quickly joined by Italian Alessandro Ballan, but neither of the pair was able to build a significant lead.

With 10km to go there were three Colombia riders in front of Cavendish on the front of the peloton and Martin was the one ready to launch the Isle of Man rider when the leading duo were reeled in with less than 2km to go.

There was still plenty of work for Cavendish to do, though, with Hushovd poised right on his back wheel.

But the Norwegian had no answer to his rival’s explosive speed as the Manxman crossed the line almost a bike’s length in front.