THE MANX EXPRESS DELIVERS

CAVENDISH BEATS BOONEN IN SHELDEPRIS SPRINT

Mark Cavendish beat Tom Boonen to win the Belgian Sheldeprijs race for a second consecutive time today, proving that he is currently the fastest sprinter in men’s professional cycling.

When Cavendish won the race in 2007 it was his first professional victory. This time it his third victory of the season and the 22nd victory for the High Road team in 2008.

Cavendish used his blistering speed to come from behind to beat Boonen and Robbie McEwen after getting some excellent team support in the final kilometres of the race.

The 21 year-old from the Isle of Man cleverly took the inside line in the sprint. Boonen thought he had done enough to win and put his arms in the air just before the line but Cavendish punished him for his mistake by snatching victory with amazing acceleration in the final hundred metres of the sprint.

“This is a special race for me because when I won it last year it was my first win as professional,” Cavendish said after celebrating with his High Road team mates.
“With fifty metres to go I thought I was finished but as I’ve shown in every other sprint I’ve done this year, I’m two or three kilometres an hour faster than anyone else and came through at the line. Tom put his arms up, I lunged at the line and I knew it’d got it.”

“The team did a perfect job to get me up there.

“I showed at De Panne that I’ve got the form. I was unlucky at Ghent-Wevelgem and so it’s nice prove a point.”

High Road directeur sportif Tristan Hofmann was impressed with Cavendish’s sprint and was right to plan the High Road team tactics for the race around the young sprinter.
“It was a super sprint. He was a little bit too far back but did two sprints: One to get up to Erik Zabel and then another to beat Boonen. He was clearly the fastest in the final metres,” Hofmann said.

“It’s an important victory for both Mark and the High Road team. Sheldeprijs is 90 years old and is a real Belgian classic. The whole team rode really well and when we realised it was going to end in a sprint we decided to work for Mark.”

“Servais Knaven inspired the chase of the last two breakaways and then the other riders were really good at helping Mark get in the right position. It was a dangerous sprint but Mark had the speed to get to the front and win.”

High Road now moves to France for Thursday’s GP Denain Porte du Hainault before the Amstel Gold ProTour race on Sunday. 

Team High Road riders race on Giant's ultimate racing machine - The TCR Advanced SL