Yesterday Mark Cavendish won his 24th Tour stage in a sprint in Marseilles.
Just imagine how discouraging for Cavendish's sprint rival. They learn he has had a chest infection since before winning the UK Road Race Championships before the Tour and has been on antibiotics, so he isn't 100% fit. His Omega-Pharma-Quickstep train has misfired at times much to Mark's disgust. There's a hill about 15k from yesterday's finish where Cav might get dropped. He has been beaten in the intermediate sprints by both Peter Sagan amd André Griepel. Plenty of reasons for thinking that they might beat Cav in Marseilles.
What happens? The Omega-Pharma-Quickstep team are first through the final corner with Mark in third place. Gert Steegmans the lead out man delivers Mark perfectly 150 metres from the finishing line, which Mark duly crosses a good two bike lengths clear of Boasson Hagen, Peter Sagan, André Griepel and Roberto Ferrari. Marcel Kittel, winner of the first stage, was caught up in a crash around 15K from the finish.
Unfortunately there was a big crash in the middle of the peloton close to the finishing line bringing down and injuring a number of riders.
Today's stage is a flat run from Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier. What's the betting that Cav's rivals will again see his back wheel disappearing into the distance?
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