Tour de France - Cavendish completes Tour treble

Eurosport - Fri, 18 Jul 18:35:00 2008

Mark Cavendish became the first Briton to win three stages in one Tour de France after yet another dominant sprint performance in stage 12.

2008 Tour de France stage 12 Mark Cavendish - 0

The 23-year-old Manxman, who also eased to sprint victories in stages five and eight, again showed himself to be the fastest man in the peloton on a day that was marred by the news that double stage winner Riccardo Ricco had tested positive for EPO.

Frenchman Sebastien Chavanel claimed second for Francaise Des Jeux in the mass sprint finale, while Belgian Gert Steegmans was third for Quick Step.

Spaniard Oscar Freire (Rabobank) retained his green jersey with a fifth-place finish behind German veteran Erik Zabel (Milram).

Cavendish, who is now fifth in the green jersey standings, had finished dead last out of 169 riders just three days ago on the Hautacam climb in the Pyrenees.

"Instead of winning by a few bike lengths, I only won by one bike length this time so it showed how tired I am," Cavendish said of his struggles in the mountains.

Frenchmen Arnaud Gerard and Samuel Dumoulin, the stage three victor, broke away after 25 kilometres of riding, and Spaniard Juan Jose Oroz joined them about 50 kilometres from the finish line.

After building a gap of more than 90 seconds over a calm peloton, the three escapees were caught with just under 10 kilometres to go.

Cavendish's Columbia team positioned their man perfectly, and the Briton easily beat out his rivals for another fine win.

He is now Britain's record holder for the number of stage wins in a single edition having beaten the mark of Barry Hoban, who still has a record eight total stage wins including doubles in 1969 and 1973.

Australian favourite Cadel Evans retained his yellow jersey after finishing in the main group. There were no major changes in the general classification apart from Ricco's removal from the top ten.

Asked about Ricco's positive test, Cavendish said: "It's a massive disappointment for the organisers but what matters is that you get the cheats."

Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) took over the white jersey for the best young rider from Ricco, while German Sebastian Lang (Gerolsteiner) claimed the polka dot jersey for best climber from the Saunier Duval rider.

Australian sprinter Baden Cooke withdrew from the race after crashing in the first ten kilometres of riding.

Friday's 13th stage takes the peloton 182 kilometres from Narbonne to Nimes with relatively flat terrain boding well for another possible sprint.

Watch live coverage of every stage on your PC via the Eurosport player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe.

Or watch the action on British Eurosport - available in the UK on Sky channel 410 and Virgin Media channel 521 or British Eurosport 2 - available on Sky 411 and Virgin Media 525.

Jeremy Stahl / Eurosport

Comment 1 - 16 of 16

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  1. is jane_sm72 a @#$% off jock i wonder?,cos when it comes to english sportsmen/women doing well in world sport the scots get so,so jealous!.
    i remember that tennis player called murray saying about englands soccer team in world
    cup 2006 that hedid not care who won as long as england didn't!,then this year pleading for our support at wimbledon!,the prat!,he got nowhere!.

    From freddybee, on Fri 18 Jul 8:38PM

  2. NOW cavendish is touching the big league with the best sprinters of all time such as ,
    chippo,kelly,abdu,zabel,and lets hope he continues to be the best ,and goes down in history with out a stain of the the bad words of drung cheat such as ricco! PRAT . so keep it clean cav all the best .st

    From Simon T, on Fri 18 Jul 10:04AM

  3. Im glad Cavendish is doing so well it makes a difference to have a genuine British competitor at the Tour :)

    From Mazza, on Fri 18 Jul 1:34AM

  4. Hay Jane sm72, I can hear your truck idling in the parking lot you better hurry up and make your deliveries so you can get back to the bar.

    From chad w, on Thu 17 Jul 8:44PM

  5. That extra Isle Of Man Leg must come in handy when you want to become the first Britain to win Three Stages of the tour :-)

    Bravo Mark, but dont forget Schumi on Ducatti is only just over 6 mins behind you :-)

    From Art T, on Thu 17 Jul 7:42PM

  6. Great win for Mark Cavendish. It's hard for us 'weekend warrior' roadies to imagine a typical day in the Tour never mind trying to win a mad bunch sprint at the end. I do a Wednesday night training ride with Cat 1s, 2s & some domestic pros which does a 26mph average over rolling terrain for 50miles & I can barely hang on the back. Imagine 150-200km every day !
    Wonder if the UK will ever produce a climber? Seems to be all track & TT specialists.

    From richorangeman, on Thu 17 Jul 5:39PM

  7. simply the best sprinter in the last 50 meters

    From pantani_ricco, on Thu 17 Jul 5:34PM

  8. hey 'Best wishes Bob Lacey': so what?

    From djweddingsnafu@ymail.com, on Thu 17 Jul 5:25PM

  9. On air this afernoon(17 July)it was said that hundreds of thousands of keen cyclists world wide never even think of taking performance enhancing drugs.
    This is true check out the web site of The Argus Cycle Tour in Cape Town, which is the last leg of the giro del capo.
    In 2000 38000 cyclists entered, it is a wonderfull experiance to compete in this, the majority of the entants from around the world cycle just for fun, although some profesional teams take part as a warm up for the european season.
    Best wishes Bob Lacey

    PS I have compelted th Argus 10 times best time, year 2000, 109 kilometers, 3 hours 28 mins.

    From lliberwork, on Thu 17 Jul 5:17PM

  10. Fantastic result amidst another controversial day for the sport. Who's betting the British press make more of the doping scandal than Mark's victory.

    Well done Cav. The best sprinter in the world, by far!

    From LabbiSiffri, on Thu 17 Jul 5:03PM

  11. great win again for cavendish ('fair play', 'hats..', etc.) but 'the Briton easily beat out his rivals..': how the hell does a someone 'easily beat out his rivals' by the width of a not-at-all-large-let's-face-it tubular tyre?

    From djweddingsnafu@ymail.com, on Thu 17 Jul 4:58PM

  12. Well done Cavendish!

    From striker_4eva, on Thu 17 Jul 4:50PM

  13. jane_sm72 has the right attitude towards people obviously. Clearly a fan of cycling too or just someone that likes to hear the sound of their own voice. I'm British by the way

    From jnadams98, on Thu 17 Jul 4:49PM

  14. Nice one Cav.
    Proves you don't have to dope to win :)

    From Mark Richardson, on Thu 17 Jul 4:44PM

  15. I hope he passes the doping test! (Are drugged up cyclists dope peddlers?)

    From mary.dodds1, on Thu 17 Jul 4:29PM

  16. 1st pus

    From striker_4eva, on Thu 17 Jul 4:18PM
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