Cavendish to maintain Paris perfection

Mark Cavendish is the man to beat in the final stage of this year`s Tour de France, the 120-kilometre from Rambouillet to Paris where the race will conclude on the Champs-Elysees.

Stage 20 is the shortest non-time trial stage of this year`s Tour de France and, unless nearly a century of history gets turned on its, the peloton will accelerate only once it arrives in Paris and starts laps of the famous avenue.

Every sprinter worth his salt wants to win the final stage of a Tour de France and you can bet your bottom dollar that every team which features a cyclist capable of pedalling his way to victory on the Champs-Elysees will have a real crack.

The problem for Cavendish`s wide-thighed opponents is that the Manx Missile has, up until this point, been unbeatable on the Champs-Elysees. The former velodrome specialist has only completed three Tours de France and each time he has pulled down the curtain with a sprint success in Paris.

After abandoning the 2007 Tour de France on the eighth stage and not continuing the 2008 Tour de France following Stage 14, Cavendish got to Paris in 2009 and won his sixth stage of what was a watershed race for him in the French capital.

Led out by Mark Renshaw, Cavendish was several metres too good for everyone else, with no-one getting closer to him than his Australian teammate. The Manx Missile had arrived.

Twelve months later and Cavendish was at it again, sprinting clear in the final 300 metres of the eight Champs-Elysees laps, leaving Points Classification winner Alessandro Petacchi and the other big men trailing in his wake.

And last year Cavendish made it three Champs-Elysees wins in a row. Wearing the green jersey, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist`s team pulled in the Champs-Elysees breakaway and catapulted the Manx Missile to victory ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen, Andre Greipel and Tyler Farrar.

Cavendish has not had everything his own way on this year`s Tour de France. Slovakian sprinter Peter Sagan is set to win the Points Classification on debut after taking out three stages and Greipel, born in what was then East Germany, has won three stages also. The Manx Missile has won only two.

But Cavendish was so impressive in winning Stage 18, racing clear after being led out by his now teammate Boasson Hagen, that he looks like a decent bet to fend off Sagan, Greipel and the unluckiest sprinter in this year`s Tour de France, Matthew Goss, to maintain his perfect Paris record.

Goss has two seconds, two thirds and one fourth to his credit but what that says about him is that he is not quite up to the same standard as Cavendish, Sagan and Greipel. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that he is somehow due.

Back Cavendish to win in Paris for the fourth year in a row and, equally remarkably, win the last two non-time trial stages of the Tour de France for the third year in four.

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21/07/2012     © Frixo 2024