Tour de France

15-07-2009 20:11:54

Columbia-HTC's Mark Cavendish has powered to a fourth stage win in the 2009 Tour de France on Wednesday, a victory that has allowed the British rider to regain the overall lead in the points jersey competition.  Today's win marks the 24-year-old's eighth career Tour stage win.

Already the winner of stages two, three and 10, on stage 11's 192 kilometre ride from Vatan to Saint-Fargeau Cavendish was perfectly lead out by teammates George Hincapie, Tony Martin, and Mark Renshaw. The Columbia-HTC sprinter finished almost a bike length ahead of American Tyler Farrar and Yauheni Hutarovitch of Bylorussia to claim his 17th win of the season.

"There's nothing better than a win. You can talk and plan at the dinner table but success is the biggest motivation,"  Cavendish said.  "We all know that if we do our job 100-percent right it'll come out right.  It's a cliche but in our team it really is 'all for one and one for all.'"

"There was a bit of an uphill at the finish but it wasn't very long.  I went for the line with 150 metres to go, not 200 metres to go, and I knew some guys would try to come back at me on the final but that was the only real difference it made."

Cavendish thanked his team for having put him in a strong position to take his second straight victory in two days.  "It's amazing to have guys like Tony Martin working for you, when you think he's leading the Best Young Rider's competition and has a top-ten place overall. That shows just how dedicated and professional they are and I can't thank them enough."

Back in green as the leader of the points classification, Cavendish said "it would be nice to hold onto this all the way through, but it doesn't change my gameplan."
"My big aim is still to reach Paris and win on the Champs Elysées."

Columbia-HTC men have now taken 58 wins this season, the highest tally of any professional cycling squad in 2009.