Despite a stiff headwind and mass confusion on the run into Bourdeaux, Mark Cavendish showed that he can win a sprint stage without HTC’s leadout, easily beating his rivals to the line in Stage 18 of the 2010 Tour de France.
“It was up me to kind of freestyle for the last kilometer,” Cavendish told LeTour.fr. “I was jumping from wheel to wheel; I was back to my old style of sprinting and it worked out, so it’s okay.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to even start the stage. I’ve been sick the last four days with bronchitis—actually, there are a lot of guys in the peloton with the same thing so I’m not only one.”
A four-rider breakaway escaped at the 11-km mark, and stayed two minutes ahead until 13 km from the end. Liquigas rider Daniel Oss, riding in his first Tour, made an heroic attack, staying away until 3.6 km, when the sprinters’ teams started seriously organizing.
“It was so nice to see the guys working so incredibly hard,” Cavendish continued. “I was sitting in 10th wheel and the guys were pulling and pulling and pulling. The guys in the escape were strong and also very clever. It was hard to bring back [Daniel] Oss—he did a brilliant ride at the finish—and we had to use Michael [Rogers] and Tony [Martin] to pull him back.”
