Tour de France: Mark Cavendish keeps green jersey as Alps loom large

Published on Tuesday 19 July 2011 17:17

MARK Cavendish took another step towards clinching the Tour de France points classification's green jersey as the race headed for the Alps.

Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) was wary of his rivals on yesterday's transitional 162.5-kilometre 16th stage from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Gap, but survived relatively unscathed and, with five days of racing remaining, has a lead of 34 points. The 26-year-old from the Isle of Man will next expect to score points on Sunday's finale in Paris, with the next three days of racing taking place in the Alps ahead of Saturday's time-trial in Grenoble.

Cavendish said: "I'm pleased with how things went today. We'll keep on trying to keep the green jersey. I'm just going to have to suffer the next three days and try and save some energy."

Cavendish will likely have to win on the Champs-Elysees for a third successive year to claim the green jersey, and that remains the aim. He added: "The Tour organisers have changed the rules and the points system this year. If you win a lot of stages you will get the green jersey." Cavendish has so far won four stages this year, taking his total to 19, and began yesterday's stage 37 points ahead of Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) and 71 clear of Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) in the standings.

At the day's intermediate sprint, 13 riders had broken away and swept up the majority of the points available. The peloton, including Cavendish, Rojas and Gilbert, did not contest the ride for 14th and 15th place, with two points the greatest reward.

The category two Col du Manse climb, the summit of which came 11.5km from the finish, was a concern for Cavendish, who expected Rojas and Gilbert to profit from their superior climbing ability. But with 13 riders still ahead of them, Rojas could only finish 14th for three points, with Gilbert 15th for two.

Cavendish finished 43rd on a stage which shook up the overall rankings and was seven places behind Andy Schleck, the two-time runner-up who conceded ground in his bid for the yellow jersey. Cavendish was happy with his performance as he seeks to become the second Briton on the Tour podium after 1984 King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar. Cavendish added: "I wasn't going to go for it today. I was going to save my legs because we've still got the Alps. But we started the climb and I thought 'This is quite small' and I felt good. I jumped across to a group in front, felt strong and just decided to go on. I gave it everything I had at the final. I tried hard to stay with them (Rojas and Gilbert] over the climb. I was very lucky today, but there are three big days ahead of us now and we'll have to fight all the way."The stage was won by world champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo), who beat Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) in a sprint finish and now sits fourth in the points classification, on 235 points, following his second stage win. Hushovd wore the yellow jersey for much of the first week of the race and his successor as race leader Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) retained the maillot jaune yesterday after finishing four minutes 44 seconds behind Hushovd in 18th place.

The Frenchman's advantage is now just 1min 45secs over Australian Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) ahead of today's first of three days in the Alps, the 179km 17th stage from Gap to Pinerolo.

Evans finished 11th yesterday, 21 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey group. Defending champion Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard) was 12th. Contador is now 3:42 adrift of Voeckler, but gained ground on two of his main rivals for overall victory. Frank Schleck finished alongside Voeckler and is 1:53 ahead of Contador, while Andy Schleck is 39 seconds ahead of the Spaniard.