News
Cavendish Keeps Winning!
(May 14, 2007) T-Mobile Team rider Mark Cavendish is having a spectacular first pro season. And his winning ways continued on Sunday May 13, when he out sprinted the pack to win the soggy final stage of the “Four Days of Dunkirk” in northern France. Delivered to the finish line by a strong T-Mobile sprint train, the Manxman was able to do the rest, edging out Erik Zabel (Milram) and Matthew Goss (CSC) in the straight-forward bunch finish to take his third win of the season."I am delighted with the win here, but the really pleasing thing was the team work and support I had got here all week, said Cavendish. "I wasn't in top form when I won the
The 21-year-old neo-pro’s third podium finish in the six-day race helped him seal a comprehensive win in the Points Competition – Cavendish led home the bunch for third place on stage two and took out
"All credit to Mark, who gave us anther glimpse of his enormous sprint potential. With two stage wins and the point’s jersey, we've got as much as we could out of this race," said sporting director Brian Holm.
Frenchman Mathieu Ladagnous was crowned overall winner of the six-day race. The FDJ rider, who won Saturday’s penultimate stage in a breakaway sprint, crossed the line in the main bunch to take the jersey off overnight leader Dominique Cornu (Predictor-Lotto).
How it unfolded
A five-man group led by prologue winner Bradley Wiggins (Cofidis) held the lead for much of the day after escaping from the peloton early into the stage raced in, at times, torrential rain.
However, the joint efforts of the sprinters teams kept tabs on the escapees and their lead never reached more than four minutes.
The breakaways were all reeled in on the final laps of a finishing circuit in Dunkirk to set up the bunch sprint showdown. Milram and T-Mobile Team controlled things in the finale, stringing out the peloton for Zabel and Cavendish respectively. After a text-book lead-out by team mates Eric Baumann, Andre Greipel and Bernie Eisel, Cavendish had the power and pace to finish off the job, edging out Zabel by a wheel length. The men and women of T-Mobile Team ride the Giant TCR Advanced T-Mobile Team bicycle.
Holm said, "The entire team worked hard here all week. We are all very pleased - especially as we hadn't originally planned to race here."
The “Four Days” T-Mobile roster in brief:
Eric Baumann (27), Mark Cavendish (21/Great Britain), Scott Davis (28/Australan), Bernhard Eisel (26/Austria), Roger Hammond (33/Great Britain), André Korff (33), Jakob Piil (34/Denmark), Stephan Schreck (28).
14 May 2007