Team effort lifts Cavendish to second success

Mark Cavendish hailed the teamwork of Columbia-HTC after he claimed a second consecutive Tour de France stage win yesterday.

Cavendish followed up Sunday’s victory to claim the 196.5km stage three from Marseille to La Grande-Motte ahead of Thor Hushovd (Cervelo TestTeam) and Cyril Lemoine (Skil-Shimano) thanks to another perfect sprint finish.

It was hard work for Columbia as, with today’s 39km team time-trial stage around Montpellier looming, riders were unprepared to make the running at the front.

Cavendish said: “We were the only sprint team that wanted to ride today in the front group, but it worked out and the other teams had to ride behind anyway to chase us.

“You could really appreciate how strong we were as a squad and we took a lot of time out of the guys behind.

“It was a hard last kilometre, but I had five guys around me in the last build-up for the sprint.

“Mark [Renshaw] kept his cool and left it very late because there was a headwind but it worked out well.”