Competitions

Cavendish blasts to eleventh tour stage win of career

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Parent Category: Competitions

Category: Tour de France 2010

Published on Thursday, 08 July 2010 21:54

Written by Luca Salvatelli

HTC-Columbia's Mark Cavendish has blasted to the eleventh Tour de France stage win of his career Thursday. The 25-year-old's victory came on stage four of the Tour, a 153-kilometre run from Eparnay to Montargis, crossing the line more than a bike length ahead of Germany's Gerald Ciolek. Cavendish hugged and thanked each of his HTC-Columbia teammates after what was a particularly emotional victory.

"Yesterday [Wednesday] didn't go so great. I felt like I'd let the team down when I couldn't finish off with a win," Cavendish said afterwards. "But the team has always believed in me. They gave it 100 percent for me today again, and they never gave up on me. I really wanted to win a stage in the best bike race in the world, too, and now I've been able to do that today. It's amazing."

"The pressure's been really intense," added Cavendish. "It's been really tough at times, but I want to thank all the people who have supported me though the hard moments. I've got an incredible group of friends and family, and a once-in-a-lifetime team, and they picked me up and all helped me to recover. We came here with ambitions to win stages, and I'll keep trying for more stages in the future."

Cavendish win is the 38th for HTC-Columbia's men team in the 2010 season, and is the 55th road victory of his professional career. On a great day's racing for HTC-Columbia, Cavendish's victory coincided with a win for American teammate Evelyn Stevens, in stage seven of the Giro Donne in Italy.