SCOTT Sports

Mark Cavendish today took his third win of the 2010 Tour de France. On the long, straight run into Bourg-les-Valence , the battle lines were drawn between the big sprinters’ teams, Lampre, Garmin, Sky, and HTC-Columbia. It looked like anyone’s race as the peloton dashed under the red kite with one kilometer to go.



Team Sky looked to be making a push on the front before an amalgamated train of Lampre and HTC-Columbia drove to the fore. Bernard Eisel took the front of the race for HTC-Columbia to drag Renshaw and Cavendish clear of the pack. Garmin’s Julien Dean barged to the front to challenge Mark Renshaw for the final leadout, but Renshaw showed him why he is the best in the business.



With four hundred fifty meters to go, Renshaw literally beat back the assault of the encroaching Dean and cleared a gap for his man Cavendish. Cavendish, seeing daylight along the barriers, launched his attack with three hundred seventy-five meters to go. Having no choice but to go for the long one, Cav gave it his best dig and showed true grit to hold off his rivals Petacchi and Farrar for his third win of the Tour. “It was a really hard sprint, very long,” Cavendish reported. “I have been really suffering in this heat, but I wanted to win this team. My third stage win here shows that I am the best sprinter in this Tour. We want to get to Paris to try to win again on the Champs-Elysees.”



In spite of the fantastic win the team was left with a bittersweet taste after the day's results were announced. The race commissionaires made the decision to disqualify Renshaw from the Tour for the way he defended his position during the final lead out of the sprint.