Cavendish sprints to stage win in California

MARK Cavendish let his cycling do the talking as he won the first stage of the Tour of California.

The 24-year-old Manxman was withdrawn from the Tour de Romandie by his HTC-Columbia team at the end of April following a two-fingered salute which accompanied just his second win of the season.

Complications following off-season dental surgery saw Cavendish – a winner of 10 Tour de France stages in the last two years – well behind schedule and he allowed his frustrations to boil over in Switzerland.

But the 24-year-old began to redeem himself with a typical sprint finish victory in the 167.7-kilometre first stage from Nevada City to Sacramento.

The Tour of California was formerly held in February, but has been moved in the race calendar and now clashes with the Giro d'Italia, the year's first Grand Tour.

Cavendish paid tribute to his team-mates after his third win of the season. "I'm really happy," he said. "I thought it was going to be a bunch sprint and the team controlled it perfectly. When you've got eight guys giving 100 per cent and all trusting each other it just works. Only one guy crossed with their hands in the air but it's a team effort.

"I trust Mark Renshaw's wheel, he trusts Bernie Eisel's wheel, Bernie trusts Tony Martin's wheel and it just goes like that. I'm the one who crosses the line first but all the guys in front of me deliver me perfectly."

Cavendish, who won two stages and the sprint classification at the 2009 Tour of California, hopes his team-mate Michael Rogers can now go for overall victory in the week-long race, which finishes on Sunday in Agoura Hills.

He added: "We are a Californian team and we have American sponsors and it's an important thing for us to do well here.

"Hopefully we can get a couple more sprints but the pressure's off a bit now and we would really like to go for GC. Mick Rogers is in the form of his life so I can hope that I can also contribute to that goal too."