Mark Cavendish turned back the clock on Stage 7 to Chateroux, winning his second stage at this year’s Tour and the 17th of his career. The win was extra special for the Manx Man who recorded his first ever stage victory in this very city back in 2008. Cavendish defeated last years Green Jersey winner Alessandro Pettachi, who at least showed some signs of a return to form, and his former teammate Andre Greipel, who finished the podium in third. But perhaps the bigger news of the day was the massive crash mid-stage that split the peleton, and led to the abandonment of Britian’s national champion and GC contender, Bradley Wiggins, who had to abandoned the race with a broken collarbone.
The crash was the story of the stage, with the main field split into two peletons, the second, larger, group finishing 2 minutes behind Cavendish in the lead group. Apart from Wiggins, the only real GC contenders to finish in the second pack where the Radioshack pair of Levi Leipheimer (who lost time yesterday) and Chris Horner, who actually finished 13 minutes down after making several trips back to the race doctor for a broken nose. This marked a bad 48 hours for the US team after their young GC hopefully Janez Brajkovic was forced to abandon yesterday’s stage. The teams hopes now lie in 36 year old German Andreas Kloden, a former podium finisher, but surely a rider well past his best. To be honest, while the anglo’s will be disappointed with the abandonment of Wiggins, and the Radioshack collapse, these were B grade GC candidates at best, and I don’t think their collapse has altered the overall flavour of the race too much (although it may alter the final destination of the team’s classification).
Jose Joaquin Rojas returned to the lead in the green jersey competition. Although he was a fair way back in the final sprint, he was still well ahead of Philippe Gilbert, and also defeated Gilbert in the intermediate sprint. Still, it would seem he is just keeping the jersey warm for Cavendish, who defeated Rojas and Gilbert in the intermediate sprint on his ear. The final sprint to the finish was also little more than a training drill for Cav. HTC set up the perfect 6 man lead up with over 2 kilometres to go and were never troubled. While former HTCer Andre Greipel tried to pinch the win with an early jump, Cavendish was never going to lose once he jumped off Mark Renshaw’s wheel and sped away to the finish.
Yellow Jersey – Thor Hushovd
Polka Dot Jersey – Johnny Hoogerland
Green Jesrey – Jose Joaquin Rojas
White Jesrey – Robert Gesink
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