Mark Cavendish marked his 5th-ever win at the Tour de France on Sunday with a Stage 2 sprint just ahead of Washington's Tyler Farrar hanging onto his wheel.
George Hincapie and other members of Team Columbia executed a textbook lead-out in the village of Brignoles for sprint star Cavendish.
Just behind, Danny Pate and Julian Dean of Garmin-Slipstream helped Farrar negotiate the traffic and get as close to Cavendish as he hoped to get.
Meanwhile, Fabio Cancellara finished in the pack, easily holding onto the yellow jersey that he earned in the Stage 1 individual time trial.
5 wins
The 24-year-old from the Isle of Man is beginning to rewrite the record books in professional cycling. He raced in his first Tour de France in 2008 and won four stages that first year — 5, 8, 12, and 13.
If Sunday's finish is any indication, the combination of Columbia's tactics and Cavendish's strength will put him on the podium a few more times this year.
It figures that 25-year-old Farrar of Wenatchee, Washington, was the closest one to challenge him. The Garmin-Slipstream sprinter is one of an elite few who have beaten Cavendish in a contested sprint, doing so on Stage 3 of the Tirreno-Adriatico this spring.
Breakaway
The 116-mile route into southern France was billed as a sprinters' course, although it had four climbs along the way.
Four escaped about 13 miles into the race. They were Jussi Veikkanen (Française des Jeux), Stef Clement (Rabobank), Cyril Dessel (AG2R La Mondiale) and Stéphane Augé (Cofidis).
They never gained more than five minutes on the peloton, if that.
Columbia
Team Columbia was at the head of the peloton when the breakaway four were caught, and Columbia led the peloton most of the way into Brignoles until launching Cavendish at the last moment.
After Pate and Dean led Farrar through the thickest part of the peloton, Farrar used the Columbia lead-out to grab Cavendish's wheel. But that's all he could do as Cavendish drove across the finish line.
Hanging onto 3rd was Roman Feillu of AGR4; Thor Hushovd of Cervelo finished 4th.
Lance Armstrong won the race for first to Twitter.
“St 2 done. Hot, hot, hot. Up/down/left/right but pretty uneventful. There was an obcene amount of spectators which was great. Congrats 2 Cav… And congrats to Tyler Farrar for coming 2nd. Folks, remember that name. He's a good one. And a good dude”
Another sprint day
The peloton tackles a 124-mile route between the seacoast cities of Marseille and La Grande-Motte for Stage 3 on Monday. The first half of the course has some hills, but the second half is dead flat all the way to the finish.
There was no change at all in the overall top 10 in the race for the yellow jersey.
The Top 10
1. Fabian Cancellara – Saxo Bank
2. Alberto Contador – Astana, 18 seconds behind
3. Bradley Wiggins – Garmin Slipstream, 19 second
4. Andreas Kloden – Astana, 22 seconds
5. Cadel Evans – Silence Lotto, 23 seconds
6. Levi Leipheimer – Astana, 30 seconds
7. Roman Kreuzinger, Liquigas, 32 seconds
8. Tony Martin, Columbia, 33 seconds
9. Vincenzo Nibali – Liquigas, 37 seconds
10. Lance Armstrong – Astana, 40 seconds
Standings of US cyclists
6. Levi Leipheimer – Astana, 30 seconds behind
10. Lance Armstrong – Astana, 40 seconds
13. David Zabriskie – Garmin, 47 seconds
17. Christian Vande Velde – Garmin, 57 seconds
34. George Hincape – Columbia, 1:17
37. Danny Pate – Columbia, 1:20
77. Tyler Farrar – Garmin, 1:42
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