Tour de France: Cavendish wins green jersey in 11th stage
LAVAUR, France: Mark Cavendish of Great Britain made no mistake in the 11th stage of the Tour de France cycle race 2011 on Wednesday when he defeated his bitter rival German Andre Greipel to grab the green jersey.
Tour de France Stage 11. Courtesy: Reuters
Cavendish came so close to win the 10th stage the other day but Greipel got the better of him in the final seconds to snatch victory from his jaws but this time the Briton was not in a mood to give it away in the last flat stage before the Pyrenees.
Getting good support by teammate Mark Renshaw in the final stretch, Cavendish stretched himself to claim his 18th victory on the Tour de France in the 167.5-km-long phase from Blaye les Mines.
Le Tour de France 2011 – Stage Eleven. Courtesy: Getty Images
Apart from Cavendish and Greipel, Tyler Farrar of the United States also was impressive as he stood third while Thomas Voeckler of France managed to regain possession of the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
Cavendish had little scares towards the end when he managed to survive a failing buckle on his shoe to take lead in the points classification standings with 251 points, 16 ahead of Spanish rider Jose Joaquin Rojas, while Belgium’s Philippe Gilbert follows on 231 points.
Mark Cavendish. Courtesy: AP PHOTO
Mark Cavendish told reporters, “Yesterday I feel I made a small mistake, Andre rode one of the most technically sound sprints I’ve ever had to sprint against. What gets me down is to see these eight guys ride themselves to the ground for me and I can’t finish the job for them. I told them I’ll win tomorrow. And I had to win after the work those eight guys did today. There was no other option really”.
Setting his eyes on the green jersey, Cavendish said, “For me it’s incredibly important. It’s the most beautiful jersey in the world, it’s what I came for and it took me half the Tour to get it. There’s two more bunch sprints, one in Montpellier and the one in Paris. It will be difficult because I tire out little by little. But I’ll just keep fighting, give it my best shot and see what happens”.
Tour De France 2011. Courtesy: AP PHOTO
Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, who retained the Yellow Jersey, has now an overall lead of 1:49 over Luis Leon Sanchez of Spain and 2:26 over Cadel Evans of Australia.
Voeckler said, “It was a wet and stressful day, but one more day in the yellow jersey is great. To be honest I expect to lose it tomorrow but it doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight to keep it”.
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