Tour de France: It's all about hanging on for Mark Cavendish

Published on Monday 18 July 2011 17:51

Mark Cavendish must battle his competitors, time limits and the mountains to give himself the opportunity of returning home with the Tour de France's green jersey on Sunday - and now rules and allegations leave him in fear of retrieving a drinks bottle from his support car.

The 26-year-old from the Isle of Man won his fourth stage of the 2011 Tour and his 19th in all yesterday in Montpellier to take a 37-point lead in the race for the points classification leader's maillot vert.

However, the next six days of racing before the Tour reaches Paris on Sunday include the Alpine ascents where the race is won and where Cavendish will be looking to merely survive.

The Briton has continually fought off allegations of cheating from rivals - which he believes are often stirred up by the media - for hanging on to the team car and now he is taking extreme measures.

Speaking on the Tour's second rest day, Cavendish today said: "I'm scared to even collect a bottle from the car now in case someone gets a photo of me just grabbing a bottle and accusing me of hanging on. That's how paranoid I am of people accusing me of hanging on."

Renowned more for his sprint finish than his climbing ability, Cavendish often rides merely to finish inside the time limit, which is set at a percentage of the stage winner's time, depending on the severity of the stage.

Cavendish said: "It's just about suffering. It will end at some point, whether you're in or out of the time limit. I'm lucky I've got Bernie with me."

His faithful team-mate and room-mate Bernhard Eisel - a man the Briton describes as his "best friend in the world" - is by his side for the entirety of the 3,430-kilometre Tour.

And it is the Austrian who now collects Cavendish's drinks from the team car, under the watchful eye of race officials.

Finishing inside the time limit is not always in his control, though. Last Saturday's final Pyrenean stage to Plateau de Beille saw Cavendish come close to being eliminated, following a crash which cost him a minute, but the support of team-mates Eisel, Danny Pate and Lars Bak saw him through.

He said: "The other day was pretty touch and go. The grupetto were going full gas so we couldn't catch them. But we caught the grupetto at the bottom of Plateau de Beille and we got in."

Cavendish knows Friday's 109.5-kilometre 19th stage from Modane Valfrejus to Alpe-d'Huez is key to his hopes of winning the green jersey as he has three of the toughest climbs in the world to negotiate. He added: "We've got to go full gas for 109km, that's the order of the day on stage 19. It doesn't matter how fast they go in front, we can't go any faster or slower, just full gas."

Today's 162.5km route from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Gap is another testing day, with a category two climb before the finish. Classics specialist Philippe Gilbert is expected to attempt to reduce his points deficit to Cavendish today. The Omega Pharma-Lotto rider currently lies third in the rankings, on 248 points, with Cavendish in front on 319 and Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) second on 282.

Meanwhile, Alberto Contador knows he is running out of time, and stages, to close the gap on his Tour de France rivals. The Spaniard's bid for a fourth Tour title has yet to get going as the race enters its final week, a combination of bad luck and a niggling knee injury conspiring to make it difficult for him to launch his trademark attacks in the mountains.

"This is probably the hardest Tour I've done. I have lost a lot of strength since the beginning," Contador said yesterday. "Without the time loss from the first stage I would be in a good position to win the Tour, and (just] waiting for the last time trial."

He must first find a way to claw back a four-minute deficit on race leader Thomas Voeckler, as well as the time lost to Andy and Frank Schleck, of Luxembourg, and two-time runner-up Cadel Evans, of Australia.