Cav wins again - the picture does not tell 1000 words in this case though - the margin was some 5 bike lengths.
Mark Cavendish put his stamp on the sprint finishes of this year's Tour, with his fourth bunch sprint stage victory in Bordeaux looking easier than ever. He had a five-bike length gap over Julian Dean and Alessandro Petacchi. The Ale-Jet didn't win the stage but his third place finish gave him enough points to snatch it off the shoulders of Thor Hushovd who finished a disappointing 13th.
Of his completely dominant win Cavendish said "I only want to win, not matter by how much, when Petacchi went, I thought, that's it. But then it was pretty easy."
It was Cavendish's 14th career Tour stage win, all gathered within only three years. He has now outdistanced his mentor Erik Zabel, who himself won in Bordeaux in 1995 and 1997. "I have never seen anyone like Mark," said the old master, who gave his protégé several hugs after the stage.
It really is a shame that he crashed on stage 1 when Petacchi won. The big Italian took 35 points there, ahead of Cavendish's team mate Mark Renshaw. Cavendish finished 178th after being taken out and received no points. I think we all know that Petacchi would not have beaten Cavendish there, but even if he did, you would think that Cav would have grabbed 2nd ahead of his lead out man. Those points would have him comfortably in the Green Jersey. Cav is going to get 5 stage wins here and yet be robbed of the Mailot Vert for the 2nd year in a row.
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini | 213 | pts |
| 2 | Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team | 203 | |
| 3 | Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team HTC - Columbia | 197 | |
| 4 | Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne | 167 | |
| 5 | Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha | 162 | |
| 6 | Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team | 152 | |
| 7 | Sébastien Turgot (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom | 122 | |
| 8 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana | 115 | |
| 9 | Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi | 112 | |
| 10 | Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank | 107 |
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