CYCLING TOUR DE FRANCE: ON THE team bus from the hotel to the start of yesterday's stage in Bourgoin-Jallieu, Mark Cavendish announced he was planning to give it a go.
“Just get me up the climb,” he told his team-mates, looking ahead to the rocky hills of the Ardeche and the winding road up to the 787m Col de l’Escrinet, which they would cross only 16km before the finish.
The only people who knew what was coming were the people in the Columbia-HTC bus. To the rest of the world, stage 19 was going be a day for riders who had done nothing else over the past three weeks. There would be an early break containing no one of consequence, and its members would be allowed to stay away and fight among themselves for minor glory.
Instead, Cavendish controlled the outcome, as he had controlled those of four earlier stages. His unexpected fifth stage win in the year’s Tour not only went one better than his personal performance in 2008, but also broke the British record of eight wins in total, set by Barry Hoban between 1967 and 1975, and equalled by Cavendish last week.
And Nicolas Roche showed great determination to net his fifth top-10 finish, placing eighth in the final sprint despite being clear in a break for much of the stage.
The winner’s press conference allowed Cavendish to make a gesture of reconciliation to Thor Hushovd, his rival for the green jersey, with whom he had exchanged bitter words after the Norwegian’s protest had led to Cavendish losing his points from stage 14 in Besancon, when he was judged to have barged his rival while winning the bunch sprint. Hushovd’s response came on Wednesday, when he made a long solo break on the Tour’s hardest mountain stage, underlining his right to the jersey by winning two intermediate sprints in lonely majesty and even crossing an Alpine summit by himself.
Yesterday the clever and experienced Hushovd manoeuvred himself as usual on to Cavendish’s wheel to make the most of the Columbia team’s lead-out expertise, knowing that by finishing close behind he would minimise the reduction in his points lead. He could not stay with the Manxman on the last uphill drag to the line, but he remains 25 points ahead.
“After Thor’s ride two days ago, no one deserves to wear that jersey in Paris more than him,” Cavendish said last night. “Okay, I wore the jersey and I thought that I could have it, but that was because I’d been delivered into the best position by my team. But somebody who’s fought for it like that – I can’t compete with something like that. It was humiliating for me the other day. That was a beautiful ride by Thor.”
After a succession of breaks had been neutralised, Cavendish’s team produced their slick sequence of close-out moves. Tony Martin was the last to hand over to Cavendish, preceded by George Hincapie, who has ridden for a couple of days with what his team believe to be a broken collar bone.
Even with today's massively daunting stage up the Mont Ventoux in prospect, the 36-year-old New Yorker is refusing X-rays. These are not like other men. Guardian Service
Stage 19 details
Bourgoin-Jallieu to Aubenas, 178km
1 Mark Cavendish (Brit) Team Columbia HTC 3hrs 50mins 35secs, 2 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team, 3 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram, 4 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Silence Lotto, 5 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank, 6 Jerome Pineau (Fra) Quick Step, 7 Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) Skil-Shimano, 8 Nicolas Roche (Ire) AG2R La Mondiale, 9 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Francaise des Jeux, 10 Martijn Maaskant (Ned) Garmin Slipstream, 11 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Agritubel, 12 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana all same time, 13 Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Team Katusha at 0.04, 14 Bradley Wiggins (Brit) Garmin Slipstream, 15 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank, 16 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel Euskadi, 17 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia HTC, 18 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha, 19 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale, 20 Andreas Kloden (Ger) Astana all same time.
General classification: 1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 77hrs 6mins 18secs, 2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank at 4.11, 3 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana at 5.21, 4 Bradley Wiggins (Brit) Garmin Slipstream at 5.36, 5 Andreas Kloden (Ger) Astana at 5.38, 6 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank at 5.59, 7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas at 7.15, 8 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin Slipstream at 10.08, 9 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Francaise des Jeux at 12.37, 10 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel Euskadi at 12.38, 11 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha at 13.36, 12 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas at 14.08, 13 Sandy Casar (Fra) Francaise des Jeux at 14.37, 14 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale at 15.27, 15 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo Test Team at 17.23. Other: 23 Nicolas Roche (Ire) AG2R at 31.45.
Sprinters:1. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo 260pts, 2. Mark Cavendish (Brit) Columbia 235, 3. Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Milram 148.
King of the Mountains1. Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 196pts, 2. Egoi Martinez (Spa) Euskaltel 135, 3. Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bbox Bouygues 99.
Youth:1. Andy Schleck (Lux) Saxo Bank 77hrs 10mins 29secs, 2. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas at 3:04, 3. Roman Kreuziger (Cze Rep) Liquigas at 9:57, 4. Nicolas Roche (Ire) AG2R at 27:34.
Police raid homes of Di Luca, doctor
DANILO DI LUCA’S home was raided by Italian police yesterday, but the Giro d’Italia runner-up was adamant he had not used banned substances.
The International Cycling Union said on Wednesday that Di Luca had been provisionally suspended after testing positive for the banned blood booster Cera during May’s Giro.
An investigative source in Rome said searches had taken place at Di Luca’s house near Pescara and the home of a doctor accused of supplying athletes with illegal drugs.
Di Luca earlier told Sky television there could have been an unintentional mix-up with his test and he wanted his B sample to be checked at a different laboratory.
