High Road's Cavendish: Did he or didn't he?

The sudden controversy concerning UK's Mark Cavendish, left, at the Giro d'Italia doesn't involve tainted urine samples or blood doping allegations.

The issue is whether or not Cavendish let High Road teammate and lead-out man Andre Greipel win the Stage 17 sprint to the finish line in Locarno on Wednesday.

Cavendish has two stage wins of his won at the Giro, and observers noted that he sat on Greipel's wheel through the sprint and never accelerated to win the stage. It would have been his third stage win at the Giro; no Briton has ever won three stages of a major cycling race, laments the Guardian newspaper.

Annoyed

To his credit, the suggestion that Cavendish let him win chafed Greipel. The 26-year-old is quite capable of winning a race, having won three stages of the Tour Down Under earlier this year.

Cavendish is quoted in UK's Cycling Weekly:

“I owed Andre this for the job he did the other day. He deserved to win. He's fast. It wasn't like I needed to come round him if he was going to win. It's perfect.” 

Greipel told the press conference following the race:

“I started my sprint and went all the way to the finish. I know that I'm fast and that I'm one of the strongest in the bunch but even if Cavendish had passed me we would still have got first and second.”

“I think Cavendish was happy with me, I think everyone was happy with me. I did a good job for him when he won and we came 1-2 today. We wanted to win as a team and we won as a team. Mark didn't said nothing to me, I think he was happy with me.” 

No gifts

Remember when Lance Armstrong let Marco Pantani take the win on Mount Ventoux in 2000? Pantani considered it an insult. After that, “No more gifts.” (See “Armstrong remembers Pantani” at CyclingNews.)

Team High Road is George Hincapie's team, but he isn't racing in the Giro d'Italia. It was a Germany-registered team sponsored by T-Mobile, until that company abandoned its sponsorship. High Road is based in the US now.

Meanwhile, Astana's Alberto Contador remained in the pink jersey with a 41-second lead over Italy's Ricardo Ricco of Saunier Duval.

The peloton greets a rolling stage on Thursday, followed by mountains on Friday and Saturday and a final time trial in Milan on Sunday.

More results at CyclingNews and VeloNews.