Stage Six was the last flat stage until after the Alps, and HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish was not about to waste the opportunity to get a stage win.
Though HTC’s once-invincible leadout train was shattered by Lampre, in the end a terrific effort by HTC’s Mark Renshaw put Cavendish in position 200 meters out, and once the Manx Missile fired his rocket, even Ale-jet couldn’t match his speed.
Mark Cavendish, in an interview on LeTour.fr, thanked his team for getting him the win, saying they did the work, while “I’m just the guy who puts my hands in the air…
“We’ve only got four guys for the leadout. We’ve had to jump from the back trains to use the other teams that were leading out, and that’s what they were doing. Mark Renshaw kept his cool—he used Lampre, then jumped off Lampre onto Garmin and then delivered me perfectly, 200 meters, 175, and it was just straightforward from there really.”
Garmin-Transitions had the best strategy, but not the best organization. While Lampre fought with HTC on the right side of the road, Julian Dean took the Garmin train down the center, but Tyler Farrar was still stuck on the right. Dean led Robbie Hunter into the lead with a kilometer to go, and around the final bends they were well in control, but they were a rider short to make the distance.
