Cavendish collects 3rd stage win; Evans keeps yellow
Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia) won the 12th stage of the 95th edition of the Tour de France — his third stage of this year’s race — as Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) retained the leader’s yellow jersey.
"I’m a bit tired now but I was still fastest across the line," said a weary Cavendish with a chuckle. "I’m glad I could do that for my teammates. It’s just so nice to get another one."
Evans also praised his team for its efforts on a hot, windy stage.
"The team did a great job today to defend the jersey. They kept me out of trouble and we got some collaboration from the sprinter teams today, so it worked out well for me," he said.
The big news of the day, however, was the announcement that Riccardo Riccò had tested positive for a new variant of the blood booster EPO following the stage 4 time trial at Cholet. The sample contained metabolites of a new substance, CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator). Gendarmes took Riccò away for questioning and his Saunier Duval-Scott team abandoned the Tour.
Out on the road, meanwhile, the 158 riders who remained in the race faced a 168.5km stage through the foothills of the Pyrenees, from Lavelanet to Narbonne. The first 75km brought a few easy climbs, followed by 50km of rolling roads just inland from the Mediterranean coast before taking a straight shot across the plains for the final 25km into the ancient city of Narbonne for a downtown finish on the Avenue General Leclerc.
Long, fast and flat in the final kilometers, the course had a sweeping right-hander with 1km to go, but it was straight into the finish from there, though some brisk cross-headwinds were likely to complicate the finale for anyone hoping to go long.
Nevertheless, the sprinters were champing at the bit before the stage began, grateful for a rare shot at a mass dash in this climbing-heavy Tour.
“Today is a good opportunity,” said Rabobank’s Oscar Freire. “The legs are slowly feeling better. I can usually do pretty well in the sprints in the second half of the Tour. There aren’t many sprints this year, so we cannot miss the opportunity if it’s there. I will keep plugging away at the green-jersey points.”
Columbia director Rolf Aldag, meanwhile, was tipping Cavendish for the stage.
“He’s tired after the mountains, but when he sees the 1km flag, he comes back to life,” said Aldag. “I think if it comes down to a sprint today, he can win again. It’s long and straight, just his kind of finish. He’s won but such big margins before that even if he’s not 100 percent, he can win again.”
The usual flurry of early attacks were launched and snuffed out before a pair of Frenchmen — Arnaud Gerard (Française des Jeux) and Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) — finally escaped and built a lead of more than one minute by the 40km mark. Ten kilometers later, their advantage was 3:40.
Team Columbia, Silence-Lotto, Crédit Agricole and Quick Step then began sending riders to the front and set about gradually taking time back. And true to his word, green-jersey Freire took the third-place points at the first sprint, followed by Crédit Agricole’s Thor Hushovd, who sat third in the points standings behind Freire and Columbia’s Kim Kirchen.
Past the feed zone the gap was coming down rapidly, and Juan Jose Oroz (Euskaltel-Euskadi) took the opportunity to bridge to the break. He tried to ride right past the leaders, but didn’t get the job done, and after some discussion the threesome settled down and began to rebuild their margin. As they passed through the Villesque des Corbieres with about 39km to go, the gap was back out to 90 seconds.
Then Silence-Lotto took a hand and the chase began nibbling away at the break once again. As the second sprint loomed, the escapees held just half a minute on the peloton. Dumoulin took the top points ahead of Gerard with Oroz third.
With 20km to go, the break was clinging to a lead of 40 seconds as the peloton got serious about arranging a bunch sprint. Quick Step was massing at the front, hoping to set up Gert Steegmans. Liquigas was moving forward too, for Filippo Pozzatto. Columbia was there for Cavendish along with Milram for Erik Zabel.
As the catch came with less than 9km to go, CSC-Saxo Bank rolled to the front — whether they were hoping to find a second or two for overall runner-up Frank Schleck or thinking about springing Stuart O’Grady to the stage win was anybody’s guess. O’Grady himself shut down a brief last-ditch dig by Dumoulin.
Six kilometers out, Columbia was trying to get its train lined up for Cavendish, while race leader Evans appeared to be on his own. Milram then moved forward at 3km, and with 1km to go, the Quick Step guys began lining it out for Steegmans. Robbie Hunter (Barloworld) got into the mix, too, hoping to reclaim some small piece of glory for his decimated squad.
But it was useless. Steegmans jumped left, Hushovd went up the middle, and Cavendish gave it the gas and smartly collected his third stage win of this year’s Tour. Sebastien Chavanel (Française des Jeux) took second with Steegmans third
"I was seeing how hard my team worked," said Cavendish, who now becomes Britain's record holder for the number of stage wins in a single edition, surpassing former British great Barry Hoban, who has a record eight stage wins, scoring doubles in 1969 and 1973.
"We worked so good. They dropped me off on the perfect wheel and I was able to win again. I wasn't able to win by the gaps that I've won the two previous times, and that shows that I'm really tired, but I am really happy to win again."
—European correspondent Andrew Hood and Agence France Presse contributed to this report.
Tour de France, Stage 12: Top 10
1. Mark Cavendish (GB), Columbia, 3:40:52
2. Sebastien Chavanel (F), Française des Jeux, same time
3. Gert Steegmans (B), Quick Step, s.t.
4. Erik Zabel (G), Milram, s.t.
5. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, s.t.
6. Francesco Chicchi (I), Liquigas, s.t.
7. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Crédit Agricole, s.t..
8. Fabio-Leonardo Duque (Col), Cofidis, s.t.
9. Julian Dean (NZ), Garmin-Chipotle, s.t.
10. Heinrich Haussler (G), Gerolsteiner, s.t.
Overall
1. Cadel Evans (Aus), Silence-Lotto, 50:23:05
2. Frank Schleck (Lux), CSC-Saxo Bank, at 0:01.
3. Christian Vande Velde (USA), Garmin-Chipotle, at 0:38.
4. Bernhard Kohl (A), Gerolsteiner, at 0:46.
5. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, at 0:57.
6. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC-Saxo Bank, at 1:28.
7. Kim Kirchen (Lux), Columbia, at 1:56.
8. Vladimir Efimkin (Rus), Ag2r, at 2:32.
9. Mikel Astarloza (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 3:51.
10. Vincenzo Nibali (I), Liquigas, at 4:18.
