Mark Cavendish unleashed a devastating display of speed at the Tour de France in a sprint finish to win today’s 222.5km leg from Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde and equal Lance Armstrong and Andre Darrigade in fourth place in the all-time rankings of stage winners. Cav has largely been playing a support role in this year’s TdF in a bid to wheel team mate Bradley Wiggins to overall victory (and quite possibly to save himself a little for the upcoming Olympic challenge), but today witnessed his compelling brilliance over the final few metres of the course. Wiggins has maintained his lead of 2minutes and 5seconds over team mate Chris Froome, all but making him a shoe-in for victory on Sunday; Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) is currently in third place 36 seconds behind Froome and reigning title holder Cadel Evans languishes in sixth nearly 10 minutes behind Wiggins.
