The winningest pro cyclist in recent years is adding the rainbow jersey to his wardrobe of green, yellow, red and pink jerseys.
Great Britain's Mark Cavendish won the sprint finish in the world road race championship on Sunday in Rudersdahl, Denmark.
That means he'll wear the rainbow strips of the UCI world champion throughout the 2012 season. Australia's Matt Goss finished second with Andre Greipel (Germany) in third.
This being the world championships, the 200-some cyclists represented their countries, instead of sponsored teams, at the week-long event in Denmark. That means Cavendish wasn't supported by his usual lead-out companions on HTC-High Road, but by fellow Britons.
In fact, second place Goss, is often the last lead-out man for Cavendish on HTC-High Road. This time he tried to jump on Cav's wheel as he sped past but was unable to pass him.
US team
The highest finisher for the US was Tyler Farrar, who grew up in Wenatchee, Washington. He finished in 10th place. He told CyclingNews.com:
“It was a great race, and I had really good legs. I just screwed up the sprint.
“It was hard and my legs were good. I was just trying to hide all day and conserve energy as much as possible. I had a pretty decent position coming out the last turn, but I made the wrong decision and ended up getting a little bit boxed in the sprint.”
“I just ended up on the wrong side and then in the middle. That's bike racing.”
Other US cyclists included Taylor Phinney (24th), Brent Bookwalter (65th), Benjamin King (94th), Matthew Busche (157th), John Murphy (167th), Jeffery Louder (173rd) and Timothy Duggan (174th). Andrew Talansky did not finish.
Breakaways, crash
The 165-mile race across Denmark's flat landscape was marked by a breakaway attempt and a crash that split the peloton, putting defending champion Thor Hushovd of Norway in trouble.
France's Thomas Voeckler, who remarkably led the Tour de France for 10 stages this year, gained a small advantage with Nikki Sorensen (Denmark) and Klaas Lodewijk (Belgium) in the last lap, but the peloton caught up behind Bradley Wiggins and other British cyclists.
First Brit
Cavendish launched his sprint about 500 feet from the finish. He's the first British cyclist since Tom Simpson in 1965 to win the road race title. Growing up on the Isle of Man, he's known throughout racing as the Manx Missile. He authored a book in 2010, Boy Racer: My Journey to Tour de France Record-Breaker
The cyclist has won 20 Tour de France championships in his career, although never rode in the Tour's yellow jersey. He has held yellow jerseys from Tour of Ireland, Tour of Missouri, and Tour of California, as well as a pink jersey from Giro d'Italia and red jersey from Vuelta a Espana. At the Tour de France, he works for the green points jersey.
Worlds
Earlier in the week, Germany's Tony Martin won the elite men's time trial world championship, followed by Wiggins in silver and Cancellara in bronze. The highest placed US finisher was Phinney (15th).
Complete results at CyclingNews and UCI.
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