Cycling: Mark Cavendish has the edge in Giro stage win

The Team Sky man produced a powerful sprint to edge out Australian Matt Goss of the Orica GreenEdge team and Italian Daniele Bennati of Radioshack Nissan.

All three were credited with the same time of four hours, 43 minutes and 15 seconds for the ride from Modena.

For world road race champion Cavendish it was his second stage success of this year’s Giro.

Three days ago, before the riders had a rest day, the Manxman suffered bruising and a gashed leg when he was involved in a pile-up caused by Roberto Ferrari in the closing moments of the third stage.

Cavendish’s latest victory was spurred by strong support from his Team Sky colleagues over the closing kilometres, with Rigoberto Uran and Bernhard Eisel the first to shepherd him before Peter Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas took over for the final sprint.

Cavendish now stands fifth in the overall standings, a place ahead of Thomas, with the pink jersey still belonging to Garmin Barracuda’s Lithuanian rider Ramunas Navardauskas, who leads the way from team-mates Robert Hunter and Ryder Hesjedal.