Cavendish sprints for second consecutive stage win

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Untouchable. Just 24 hours after taking his first win of this year's Tour de France, Mark Cavendish equalled the record of his sprinting mentor, Erik Zabel, and with a superb sprint in Gueugnon indicated that yesterday was no fluke for the Isle of Man's greatest cycling export, who now has 12 Tour de France stage victories to his name.

As fans witnessed the 'real' Cavendish over the final 200 metres of yesterday's run into Montargis, the Manxman's trademark sprint was again on show - albeit with even more panache, lustre and confidence - following another brilliant dose of team work from HTC-Columbia throughout the day's 227.5km parcours.

With a commanding winning margin of two bike lengths, Cavendish celebrated with contented pleasure after the finish, yesterday's drought breaker giving him the confidence needed to get back on track despite a less-than-ideal start to this year's Tour.

"It's incredible. The guys were perfect today," said Cavendish before heading to the podium. "Kanstantin [Siutsou] has had to do a lot of work the last couple of days so we gave him a rest. Bert Grabsch started riding [in pursuit of the break] then Maxime Monfort took over."

Cavendish explained that although the day's parcours may have appeared simple on paper, the reality was something else; with just a day before the event heads into the first of its mountainous stages, today was a 'climbing hors d'oeuvre', albeit with a sprint finish. Therefore team work was vital. "We did 2,000 feet of climbing and it was up and down all day," said Cavendish.

"My guys kept riding hard on the front because we knew there would be counter attacks, but we hoped there wouldn't be too many and there weren't too many," he added. "We also knew there would be crosswinds so all the big riders' teams were at the front and then we brought the group back."

After catching the breakaway the onus was on HTC-Columbia to fight off the contenders and again deliver its man to the line. The work of Mark Renshaw was again vital in achieving that, his performance in the final kilometre exceptional. Like yesterday, the Australian never panicked despite the attention of all the other lead-out men.

"We [HTC-Columbia] had four guys for the lead-out and we had to jump from behind one of the other teams who were leading it out. [Mark] Renshaw kept his cool and jumped off Lampre's train and took me to about 150 metres to go... it was great," said Cavendish.

As for a run on the green jersey, the battle for which Cavendish has garnered 70 points in just two days, the 24-year-old is maintaining a daily focus rather than one looking at Paris in two weeks' time.

"I'm just concentrating on wins for now," he said. "I didn't push hard enough on the cobbled day because I thought the group up ahead was much bigger. I lost a lot of points and didn't get much out of the next day so I'm quite far behind [in the points classification]; I'll just keep plugging away."

Today's trio takes the loose leash

With the longest parcours of the Tour on offer today, the early break was always going to be vital to the sprinters' teams. Mathieu Perget (Caisse d'Epargne) was the first to fly the coop very early in proceedings, joined by Germany's Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Spanish rider Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

Five kilometres into the stage the leading trio had itself a two-minute lead, adding another minute in the next five kilometres and another five kilometres later. The gap soon opened to a staggering five minutes as the peloton ensured it took in some respite time ahead of tomorrow's first run into some proper climbing.

With a massive 204km left to race the break had already amassed a seven-minute lead which would be extended to eight minutes in quick time; that's as far ahead as the three leading riders got however, the main bunch kicking itself into action and deciding it was time to take back the advantage soon after.

For the next 100km the peloton took an hourglass to the break's lead, whittling it down as Saxo Bank's Stuart O'Grady and Nicki Sorensen could be seen at the front of the peloton in defence of Fabian Cancellara's race lead. Although it was under no serious threat and the Swiss rider remains in yellow for tomorrow's stage, Bjarne Riis's boys maintained appearances and in reality it was again HTC-Columbia driving much of the chase.

With the aforementioned Bert Grabsch and Maxime Monfort on the front for the better part of 100km, the gap was closed to 5:19 as the leading trio passed 100km to go; with 84km remaining that had been whittled down further to 4:25 and with 75km left to race that was reduced further, to a mere four minutes.

The two and one-minute barriers between the peloton and the break were broken with about 50km and 25km remaining in the stage, an indication of the exquisite timing of Bob Stapleton's men. With Rolf Aldag calling the shots in the car the riders in yellow were setting the stage for another well-timed catch.

It's just a matter of time

With almost 20km remaining Perget became the second Caisse d'Epargne rider in two days to try his luck alone near the end of the stage after spending it in an escape group. José Ivan Gutierrez attempted a solo move yesterday but it didn't succeed, and neither did Perget's.

Behind him his breakaway companions - Perez and Lang - were joined by Dmitri Champion (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Anthony Charteau (BBox Bouygues Telecom), who jumped from the peloton and quickly reeled Perget back into the fold.

Soon after something unusual happened, however: Team RadioShack came to the front for one of the first times in this year's Tour in an effort to keep Lance Armstrong amongst the action as the crosswinds started buffeting riders. Meanwhile Grega Bole and several of the Lampre-Farnese Vini crew had also made their way to the head of proceedings, as did Liquigas-Doimo and BMC Racing Team.

Contrary to the last two days, today's catch was made earlier in the parcours, coming with 10km remaining and leaving the sprinters' teams with more work to do as some of the general classification contenders continued to make their presence felt throughout the fast final kilometres to avoid any potential crashes.

As the peloton's swarming mass moved rapidly towards Gueugnon, Garmin-Transitions, HTC-Columbia, Lampre-Farnese Vini and Cervélo TestTeam were the prominent crews at the pointy end of the race, a familiar sight this week, as have been the Italian team's spoiling tactics - namely, throwing Danilo Hondo into the middle of the leading trio - which again featured today in an attempt to derail the hard work done by Bernhard Eisel and the HTC-Columbia train.

Consequently Cavendish's Australian lieutenant was forced to take another bite at the cherry in the final kilometre and nailed it, delivering his man to the last desperate metres and watch as he doubled the team's win tally in two days.

Full Results

Scott Sunderland's stage analysis:

The Manx missile strikes again. And whatever nickname people use for Mark Cavendish, it has to be about his speed and his sprinting because that is what makes him so special.

It's been impressive how young Mark has managed to turn his season around with his two sprint victories. He's been through some tough times but what happened has grounded and matured him, both as a person and as a rider. The people in his team have worked hard to help him get things back on track and its all been worth it.

The key to both of Cav's successes was without a doubt Mark Renshaw. So much so, that I'm not sure that Cav would have won either sprint if he had not had Renshaw there to lead him out like he did.

Renshaw is absolutely clinical in the chaos and knows exactly what to do at the exactly the right time. He is probably as good as Giovanni Lombardi was when he used to lead out Mario Cipollini to victory so many times. Cav is the best sprinter in the peloton and Renshaw is the best lead out man in the peloton. It is a perfect combination. They are very different characters but fit together perfectly. Of course the work the rest of the HTC-Columbia team is vital too because they make sure the break is caught at the right time and look after Mark and Mark all day, so they can then do their stuff. All the team deserves to celebrate together for a job well done.

We've had a pretty crazy first week of drama, chaos, crashes and great racing. Some have said it's been the best week of the Tour for years. I'd agree. But now it's time for the overall contenders to take centre stage as the battle for overall success begins.

Trust me, the next three days will be important. They may not decide who wins the Tour de France but some riders are going to have to be aggressive and try and take back the time they lost on the cobbles. It's as if they are one goal down as the second half of the world cup final begins.

It's going to be fascinating watching what Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Ivan Basso and Carlos Sastre do in the Alps. Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans can afford to play a waiting game and let the race come to them, especially Cadel, who should be able to move into yellow. Lance and Contador know they will gain some time in the Bordeaux time trial but Basso and Sastre have pull back time on the mountain finishes. They will have a three-week game plan but will have to be aggressive.

We're only just entering the second week of the Tour. It is the third week in the Pyrenees that will be decisive, But the way the race is balanced now, will make the Alps a lot more important than they seem on paper.