Cavendish wins in yellow at Missouri
Photo: courtesy Wim Dingemanse
Photo: courtesy Wim Dingemanse
Columbia's Mark Cavendish has won his second stage of Tour of Missouri today in the 200km stage from Clinton to Springfield. Cavendish crossed the line wearing the yellow leaders jersey taking his 16th victory on the road for the season.
On a stage where his team-mate George Hincapie won from a breakaway and set up his overall tour win in 2007, Cavendish didn't let down his team who worked tirelessly at the front to protect his race lead and set him up for win number two.
"My team is just brilliant,"echoed Cavendish after saying the same thing yesterday. "They are so well drilled at this and they controlled the race all day and put me in perfect position for the sprint at the end."
"When you get dropped off at that speed with 150m to go, there's nothing you can do but win. I really didn't have to do anything except sprint at the end."
The team patrolled the front of the bunch all day as small breaks were allowed to escape. "We let a group of up to five go," he added. "But if the group got bigger than that we'd bring it back."
"The guys worked all day to control the front and bring me on to the circuits and then they gave me an amazing leadout. Mick [Rogers] drove it from the 2km mark with two Liquigas guys sitting in just behind him. He took it all the way to the 800m to go mark and then George [Hincapie just moved out and took over. He went so hard over the small rise.We were flying and then Bernie [Eisel] took over and all I had to do was sprint."
Tomorrow's time trial stage in Branson will be one of the deciding factors in the overall General Classification.
"I don't expect to keep the jersey after tomorrow time trial but we've got some great time trialers in the team."explained Cavendish. "Marco [Pinotti] is Italian National Time Trial Champion. We all know George can do a great time trial and Mick Rogers is three time World Time Trial Champion. Michael Barry can also do a great ride if he's not too tired from working hard today. So I hope we can keep the jersey in the team."
Misschien ook interessant:
