Team director Allan Peiper talks about Cavendish's victory
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Allan Peiper(Image credit: John Flynn)
Mark Cavendish (HTC Highroad) on the podium(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Allan Peiper described HTC-Highroad's overall performance on stage 7 of the Tour de France as 'flawless' as Mark Cavendish took his second stage of the race after being led to the line by his teammates. It was the sprinter's second stage win in three days and pushed him further back into contention for the green jersey.
The team had all nine riders on the front of the bunch in the run into Chateauroux and they collectively avoided the crashes that affected both Garmin-Cervélo, Sky and RadioShack.
In the closing kilometres the team led out Cavendish for his 27th grand tour stage win and he was quick to praise his teammates, Tweeting: "I crossed the line 1st, but I was absolutely nothing today without 8 of the most amazing guys I'd ever wish to be associated with. So proud."
And at the finish Peiper explained the method to the team's success rate in bunch sprints.
Tomorrow's stage to Super-Besse will see team change focus from their lead out duties to overall prospects of Tony Martin and Peter Velits, who both lie 13 seconds down on the yellow jersey.
As well as talking about his own team's goals Peiper also discusses the overall chances of compatriot Cadel Evans (BMC) and whether tomorrow's stage is too early in the race to assume the overall lead.
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
