CYCLING:BRITAIN'S MARK Cavendish edged ahead in a bunched finish to win the 11th stage of the Giro d'Italia yesterday. The Team Columbia sprinter just crossed the line first to complete the 214-km route from Turin in four hours 51 minutes and 17 seconds.
American Tyler Farrar snatched second with Alessandro Petacchi, the Briton’s big sprint rival, coming in third but on the same time after getting boxed in earlier in the race to the line.
Petacchi’s LPR team-mate and Italian compatriot Danilo Di Luca, the 2007 winner, kept the race lead for the seventh straight stage and stayed one minute 20 seconds ahead of Rabobank’s Denis Menchov of Russia.
Cavendish held the pink jersey after the first day’s team time-trial and also won Sunday’s controversial ninth stage in Milan, where times were not added to the overall classification after riders said the city centre course was too dangerous.
The 23-year-old, who knew yesterday’s finish well having won March’s Milan-San Remo classic, said he was unaware Petacchi had been impeded and the pair embraced at the end. “As long as it doesn’t affect me, it’s okay, he candidly told reporters. “I knew the descent from Milan San Remo so it was the case of just doing the same.”
Petacchi, who won stages two and three, was philosophical: “Sprints are like that.”
Seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong is 5:28 behind Di Luca overall in 16th place after finishing yesterday’s stage in the leading group.
Fellow Astana rider Chris Horner did not start the stage after crashing on Tuesday while team-mate Levi Leipheimer, fourth overall, fell halfway through the route but picked himself back up.
Today’s 12th stage is an individual time-trial through the Cinque Terre region on Italy’s north east coast. Several riders have said the stage could be crucial for the race as a whole, which finishes in Rome on May 31st.
Daniel Martin highlighted his huge ability when he finished third on yesterday’s third stage of the Tour of Catalunya in La Pobla de Lillet. At the end of the 182.9 kilometre mountain leg, the 22-year-old Garmin Slipstream rider crossed the line just behind race leader Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne), who won a 10-man sprint. His first cousin Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale) came home in a group sprinting for 15th place, one minute and 12 seconds back. He was 24th.
Martin’s strong ride sees him jump from 37th to sixth in the overall standings, 19 seconds behind Valverde. Roche is now 15th, one minute and 26 seconds back.
