Another mass sprint and another victory for Mark Cavendish at the Tour de France as the HTC-Columbia's speedster weaved through his rivals to win in Bordeaux on Friday.
While competing teams drove their sprinters toward the finishline, Cavendish coolly emerged from the pack and easily won his 4th stage of this year's Tour; the 14th of his career.
Meanwhile, there was no change in the overall standings as yellow jersey wearer Alberto Contador prepares for Saturday's individual time trial in anticipation of Sunday's championship in Paris. He still leads Andy Schleck by 8 seconds.
Last sprint
One of the reasons that the peloton's sprinters suffered through the Pyrenees for the past week was a chance for this sprint finish in Bordeaux.
A four-man breakaway led most of the day. Three of them — Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank), Jerome Pineau (Quick Step), Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ) — were caught about 10 miles from the finish of the 122-mile flat stage. Daniel Oss attacked, however, refusing to be caught until the final couple of miles.
That's where HTC-Columbia's textbook lead-out seemed to fall apart as Sky, Milram and Lampre battled for the front of the peloton with their sprinters.
Follow Petacchi
But Cavendish already had been delivered near the front of the pack as the peloton approached the finish. He was locked onto Thor Hushovd's wheel as the Norwegian followed his Cervelo teammates. When he spotted Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) attack alongside, he followed then easily passed the Italian and everyone else to win by more than a bike length.
Garmin's Julian Dean finished in second place and Petacchi in third.
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