Double Delight for Mark Cavendish

T-Mobile’s Mark Cavendish won both the overall points and sprints classification on the 156.5km closing stage of The Tour of Britain from Dumfries to Glasgow. In what was a good day for British Cycling, the young rider who is in his first year as a professional, was awarded two jerseys on the podium whilst flanked by two fellow Brits, Paul Manning, stage winner and Ben Swift, King of the Mountains. With two stage wins, two jerseys and second place following a strongly ridden break-away on stage five, Cavendish ends his home tour happy.

It was a cold and windy sixth and final stage for the peloton with a five-man break-away forming early. Hoping for a bunch sprint finish, Mark Cavendish and his T-Mobile Team-mates did their best to reel in the lead group in time for the closing kilometres in Glasgow, but were unable to reach them before they crossed the finish line. Having been effectively supported and sheltered by his team-mates, Cavendish did what he does best and won the bunch sprint, crossing the line in sixth place.

Mark Cavendish commented; “My T-Mobile team-mates were fantastic, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them work so hard for me. I was incredibly tired after spending yesterday in a two-man break but my team protected me and made the stage easier than it should have been. Overall, my form this week hasn’t been great but racing on home-soil has given me the motivation to overcome that.”

Romain Feillu (Agritubel) won the overall general classification with Fuerteventura-Canarias winning the team classification. The T-Mobile Team had top-ten finishes on each of the six stages of the Tour, with Roger Hammond in twenty-ninth, Mark Cavendish  thirty-third and Frantisek Rabon in thirty-eighth. British stagiaire Ian Stannard who played a big part in supporting Cavendish throughout the race, finished sixty-fifth overall.