Tag: Mark Cavendish

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Manx Missile Launches

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.

 

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Cavendish Wins the Day

20120702-195323.jpgMark Cavendish took his first (of many?) wins as a Team Sky rider at the Tour de France today (Monday, July 2), delivering a quite brilliant display to win Stage Two in a time of 4h56’59”. In the first sprint finish of the Tour, Cav had positioned himself superbly in order to go head to head in the final 200 yards and force Lotto-Belisol’s Andre Greipel into second and Orica-GreenEDGE’s Matthew Goss into third. The victory marked his 21st stage victory at the TdF, putting him sixth on the all-time list behind the legendary Eddy Merckx and just a single stage behind Lance Armstrong.

 

Speaking after the stage, Cavendish commented, ‘I’ve been on the back foot but I’ve been more relaxed than ever coming into this Tour de France as the pressure hasn’t been there for me to do anything. (A win) doesn’t give me any more confidence as it’s never easy to win a Tour de France stage, with a team or on your own… It wasn’t as windy as I thought it was going to be and that didn’t play as much of a factor. It’s been a good start to the race for the team. Brad stayed out of trouble and hopefully he can continue on towards yellow. We’re here to win the yellow jersey. I’m here to do what I did today.’

 

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Tour de France Team Sky Squad

Team Sky have confirmed their line-up for the Tour de France, which begins on June 30. With consecutive victories at Paris-Nice, Tour of Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné Bradley Wiggins will lead the team consisting of Edvald Boasson Hagen, Mark Cavendish, Bernhard Eisel, Chris Froome, Christian Knees, Richie Porte, Michael Rogers and Kanstantsin Siutsou. The 99th edition of the TdF marks Wiggins’ sixth appearance at the event and with both Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador out of contention (due to injury and being a drugs cheat respectively) hopes are high for an overall win. In a statement accompanying the squad announcement Wiggins said, ‘I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time and I’ll do everything I can to win the Tour de France. Hopefully we can do the business for ourselves and our fans, and become the most successful British-based cycling team ever.’

 

World Road Race Champion Mark Cavendish makes his debut for Sky at the Tour, commenting on his squad inclusion, ‘It’s a dream to ride for a team that holds so much British interest and has a chance to win the yellow jersey.’

 

Dave Brailsford, Sky’s Team Principle, described the selection process as ‘a very tough challenge’, adding: ‘…we are blessed with a great depth of talent in our squad. We believe we have picked a strong and balanced team though, and one which can cater for any eventuality… Our priority this year is the General Classification with Bradley but that doesn’t mean we’ll neglect the sprint stages, or Mark’s bid for green jersey.’

 

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Cavendish Gets Stamp of Approval

20120612-163617.jpgMark Cavendish is to feature on a new set of seven stamps issued in the Isle of Man Post Office. The set, features images of the World Champion winning both the World Road Race Championship and green jersey in the 2011 Tour de France, whilst the £1.05 stamp (featuring Cav in the famous rainbow jersey) will also be one of the first in the world to incorporate augmented reality; snapping it with a smartphone brings the stamp to life and also triggers video of the world title win in Copenhagen. Commenting on the honour Cavendish said: ‘I’m proud to feature in this stamp collection and delighted with the images which have been selected… It’s a great honour for me personally, but it’s also a reflection of the widespread interest in cycling now – and that’s always great to see.’

 

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Second Stage Win for Cavendish

Giro d'ItaliaYesterday, Thursday May 10, saw an excellent comeback at the Giro d’Italia for Mark Cavendish and Team Sky after a spectacular crash for Cav on the final day in Denmark and a disappointing start to the Italian leg for the squad as a whole. Having endured a grim Team Time Trial in Verona managing only ninth with six riders crossing the line for a time of 37 minutes, 34 seconds, way adrift of Garmin-Barracuda’s winning 37m 4s, yesterday’s Stage 5, 209km from Modena to Fano, was clearly a whole new day, which saw Cav power his way to a finish in 4h 43m 15s to edge out Australia’s Matt Goss into second and Italian Daniele Bennati to third. The victory marked Cavendish’s second Giro stage win of 2012 and an impressive total of 32 Grand Tour stage wins. Lithuanian Ramunas Navardauskas of Garmin-Barracuda retains the leader’s jersey with an overall time of 14h 45m 13s.

 

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Three Days in Denmark

This year’s Giro d’Italia couldn’t have gone off to a more dramatic three days of racing as it wound its way through Denmark. The technically demanding ITT Stage One (8.7km) was defined by a 3km stretch of power-sapping head wind that finally saw victory for BMC Racing’s Taylor Phinney in a time of 10’26”, with Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) nine seconds adrift for second place and Garmin-Barracuda’s Alex Rasmussen on +13″ for third. Thomas commented afterwards: ‘I definitely tried to keep a bit back for the last 3k and that headwind and then I emptied the tank all the way to the line.’

 

Day Two – flat 206km, Herning to Herning – was all about the bunch sprint finish that saw an utterly convincing win in a time of 4:53’12 from Team Sky’s Mark Cavendish: ‘Everybody handled it well and we stayed together as a team. I was really looked after at the finish and kept sheltered. Geraint took me perfect and went exactly when he was supposed to. I was able to come off him and win the stage so I’m very, very happy.’

 

But what a difference 24 hours makes: Day Three proved disastrous for Cav when a chaotic finish saw the World Champion involved in a high-speed pile up with race leader Taylor Phinney. Just as Cavendish was looking likely to make it two wins in a row at the end of the 190km stage Roberto Ferrari moved out sharply and took Cav’s front wheel out from under him. Although hurt, Cavendish was able to carry his bike across the line and is expected to continue his participation in the Giro; Team Sky Doctor, Richard Freeman, said: ‘Mark’s had a bad crash and is very uncomfortable but we’re taking care of him. We’re travelling as a team to Verona.’ The Stage Three win went to Australia’s Matt Goss (GreenEDGE) in 4:20’53” with today – Tuesday May 8 – being a rest day as proceedings shift to Italian soil ready for tomorrow’s Team Time Trials in Verona.

 

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Sky Gears Up for Giro

Team Sky’s squad for the Gito d’Italia has been finalised and formally announced. The 95th Giro, which runs from May 5 to 27, starting in the Danish town of Herning and ending in Milan, will see  Mark Cavendish making his fourth appearance at the Italian classic and heading up a formidable looking nine-man Sky line-up. The 26-year-old will be joined by Bernhard Eisel, Juan Antonio Flecha, Sergio Henao, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift, Geraint Thomas and Rigoberto Urán. Eisel and Flecha alone have already notched up 27 Grand Tours between them and look set to add considerable experience to the team.

 

Commenting on the squad’s announcement Mark Cavendish said, ‘The Giro is one of my favourite races of the season and I’m very happy to be riding it. We’ve got a good squad to go and win stages. Geraint, Pete and Swifty have just come off the track so they should have that explosive power which will be important in the first week, and the rest of the team have all done well in the Classics. We want to win the team time trial as well and hopefully that will get us the pink jersey. If we could achieve that it would be a massive honour for the team. It should be a really good three weeks because we’re all friends and have a good understanding on the road. The Tour de Romandie has allowed me to get some miles in the legs so come the start in Denmark I’ll be raring to go.’  With Ben Swift adding: ‘The Giro will always be a special race for me because it was the first Grand Tour I rode back in 2009 and I lived in Italy whilst on the British Academy…’

 

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Under the Same Sky

Today, Tuesday April 24, sees the start in Lausanne of the 431-mile Tour de Romandie. This, the 66th edition of the Swiss six-stager, will be of particular interest to GB and Team Sky fans as the event sees the first time that Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish have competed together in the same colours; Brits Geraint Thomas and  Chris Froome also add to the weight of the eight-man squad. TdF winner, Cadel Evans, will be hoping to defend his 2011 Tour de Romandie title against strong competition, which draws to a close with a 16.5km Time Trial in the ski resort of  Crans-Montana on Sunday, April 29.