MILAN: Tour de France sprint king Mark Cavendish cruised to victory in the sixth and penultimate stage of Tirreno-Adriatico yesterday, with Spaniard Alberto Contador retaining the overall lead.
Following a crash in the final bend caused by a Lampre rider and which took down another from the Lotto team, Cavendish went on to surge from behind the wheels of three Omega-Pharma teammates in the final 150 metres of the 189km stage from Bucchianico to Porto Sant’Elpidio to win solo.
Italian teammate Alessandro Petacchi finished second with Slovakian Peter Sagan in third place.
Less than a week from the season’s first major one-day classic, the Milan-San Remo, Cavendish said he was delighted with the form that has seen him win one stage on the Tour of the Algarve as well as his victory yesterday.
“I’m really happy because I’m in great shape. I can’t wait for Milan-SanRemo,” the Isle of Man rider told Rai television.
Earlier, Sagan’s Cannondale team upped the pace when it became clear that sprint rival Marcel Kittel was struggling on one of several climbs. In the closing kilometres Philippe Gilbert pulled clear of the peloton after it had caught an earlier four-man breakaway.
However the Belgian, who will also fancy his chanwces in San Remo on Sunday, was reeled in as Omega-Pharma upped the pace for the final dash for the line.
A right-hand bend proved fatal for the sprinters looking to prevail on the long home straight, with Germany’s Andre Greipel one of several caught up in the ensuing melee.
It left a small group of riders to go on and contest the win, but with three teammates pacing him in furious fashion in the finale there was little chance of Cavendish facing an upset.
AFP
