July 5, 2009
Tour de France Stage Two: Monaco to Brignoles
187 kilometers (119 miles)


Mark Cavendish delivered in dominating fashion today, stomping his way to his first Tour de France stage win this year and the fifth of his career. A heavy favorite going into the stage, the Englishman from Isle of Man rose to the occasion, playing off a picture-perfect set-up from his teammates to ride away from the competition.

How it unfolded
A breakaway of four men formed early in the stage as Cancellara’s Saxo-Bank team controlled the pace in defense of the yellow jersey. Things started to heat up with about 43k to go as Team Columbia-HTC’s Bernhard Eisel, Bert Grabsch and Mark Renshaw went to the front of the peloton and did the lion’s share of the work to bring back the escapees to set Cavendish up for the win.

Tensions rose as the finish line drew near and the peloton caught the breakaway with just over 9 kilometers to go. Leading into the sprint, the front of the field became physical with riders bumping shoulders left and right and Columbia-HTC’s George Hincapie and Michael (Mick) Rogers laid down a brutal pace to keep Cavendish safely at the front of the group and launch him toward the line.

Rivals Tyler Farrar and Thor Hushovd got into the mix, but in the end no one could come close to matching Cav’s firepower – coming off of Hincapie’s wheel, he turned on the afterburners and delivered a long, commanding sprint to ride away from the bunch.

Crossing the line with four bike lengths on his next challenger (Farrar), Cavendish had enough of a gap to deliver a celebratory victory salute and a million dollar smile.

"When we put two guys in front it means we mean business... Today we meant business," he said after the finish.

Cavendish in Green

Cavendish now heads the Tour's points classification for the first time in his career.  On Monday's stage three, he will wear the green jersey as leader of that competition in the Tour de France.

After the victory, Cavendish found his Columbia-HTC teammates and hugged them one by one.  "The team were superb, they're all great riders and I'm just glad I can win at the end of everything they do for me," he said. “It's a very special result and now I've got the green jersey, I couldn't be more satisfied. I want to go all the way to Paris and see if I can win some more and maybe take a last win on the Champs Elysées."

Cavendish's fifth Tour de France stage win of his career takes the total of wins for Columbia-HTC men's team to 51, and comes a few hours after his teammate Andre Greipel won the opening stage of the Tour of Austria.


Looking ahead to Stage Three: Flat, Fast and Furious (Again)

196.5 kilometers will take the Tour from Marseille to La Grande Motte for a perfectly flat 880 meter run to the finish line – a brilliant set up for another scorching drag race to the line. A few undulations in the first half of the stage might allow a breakaway to go up the road, but with 78 kilometers of pancake flat terrain leading into the finish, the peloton shouldn’t have any trouble pulling back potential runaways.

Look for Saxo-Bank to control the race early on again as they defend Cancellara’s yellow jersey. Then, expect Team-Columbia HTC to work with the other sprinter’s teams to drive the pace in the final 20 kilometers as they jockey for position coming into the finishing straight to set Cavendish up for a go at Tour de France stage win number six!