Team Sky's Mark Cavendish produced a quite brilliant display to win stage two of the Tour de France in Tournai.
World champion comes out on top after epic sprint battle
Team Sky's Mark Cavendish produced a quite brilliant display to win stage two of the Tour de France in Tournai.
The first sprint finish of the race came down to an absorbing battle between the fast men and it was the world champion who proved once again that he is the quickest around as he overhauled André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) in the final 200 yards.
Before then he had positioned himself with stunning precision, moving from wheel to wheel before getting in the ideal spot right behind Greipel.
There was still work to do on the flat-out drag race to the line, Cavendish coming through to edge out Greipel, with Matthew Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE) in third.
It was Cavendish's 21st stage victory at the Tour which puts him in sixth on the all-time list behind Eddy Merckx and just one stage behind Lance Armstrong.
Frantic finish
He said afterwards: "I was alone in the last kilometre. I told Edvald [Boasson Hagen] with five kilometres to go just do your own thing. We haven’t worked enough together when it's so hectic like that. If it had just been the sprinters then it would have been okay but there were climbers and GC riders at the finish. I’d rather just go alone.
"Bernie Eisel kept me up there coming into the final. I knew it was going to be difficult, dangerous and hectic here and I came in without any pressure. I could just be plucky about it. Normally I've had a team in the past who can control it.
"I knew (Oscar) Freire always goes up in the last kilometre so I stayed [with him] and it was just perfect - with the headwind I knew you could come from behind."
With the field finishing together the top of those overall standings remain unchanged - Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) staying in the leader's yellow jersey, seven seconds ahead of Bradley Wiggins.
Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) is third, with Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) still in fourth and in the young rider's jersey just ahead of Boasson Hagen.
Stage won winner Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) now tops the sprint standings by 15 points from Cavendish.
Story of the day
The 207.5-kilometre stage from Vise had earlier unfolded in predictable fashion as a three-man breakaway comprising Christophe Kern (Europcar), Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) and Anthony Roux (FDJ-Big Mat) went away after 22km.
They had little chance of survival on a route made for the fast men of the peloton but they stayed clear long enough to take the first three places in the intermediate sprint which came 54.5km from the finish.
That left the first rider of the peloton chasing 13 points and Cavendish crossed behind former HTC-Highroad team-mates Goss and Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) to claim nine points.
The gap to the break was kept to under three minutes and Roux launched a solo attack as his two fellow escapees were swept up with around 25km to go on a straight run-in into Tournai.
With a full-speed peloton in pursuit, Roux was caught with just under 15km remaining.
The sprinters' teams lined up, while reigning champion Cadel Evans' BMC Racing squad were also prominent at the front, with Wiggins staying out of trouble alongside.
Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano), one of Cavendish's sprint rivals, was at the back of the peloton due to illness.
The tempo was high as the peloton negotiated a technical and tight conclusion, including two roundabouts and a narrowing section of road.
Lotto-Belisol moved to the front with 1.5km to go, but all the main protagonists were present as Cavendish displayed great bike-handling skills as he began to freestyle from wheel-to-wheel in the finale before timing his move to perfection.
