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Inside the Tour, with John Wilcockson – Cavendish on top of the world
Sprinters who are capable of winning stages of the Tour de France rarely keep winning for long. They either burn themselves out (either mentally or physically) or soon lose the leg-speed that’s so essential for winning a highly charged field sprint at 40 mph. In view of the astounding finishing speed and dominant margins of victory shown by Team Columbia’s Mark Cavendish in his stage wins at Toulouse on Saturday (and in Châteauroux on Wednesday), I thought it was worth seeing where the 22-year-old Brit stacks up again great sprinters in recent Tour history.
Will Frischkorn’s Tour de France diary, stage 8
Today was a stressful day out on the roads of France for one and all. We woke up to beautiful sunny skies and what looked like it would be a warm day. An hour later the rain socked in and didn’t let up all day long. When the entire field is jockeying for position on the start line, that’s still followed by 10 minutes of neutral before the official gun goes off, you know it’s going to be a rough one.
Mark Cavendish takes a second stage win while teammate Kim Kirchen retains the overall.
You might call it greed or an addiction to victory. Team Columbia — simultaneously eager to protect Kim Kirchen's overall lead and set up sprinter Mark Cavendish for a stage win — controlled the peloton for most of Saturday's eighth stage of the Tour de France. The U.S.-based team kept an early break's lead to a manageable gap and then put the hammer down in the last 10k to reel it in and deliver its young British fast man to his second Tour stage victory.
Stage 8 – By the numbers
Stage 8, Figeac to Toulouse, 172.5km
Weather: Light rain in morning, turning to heavier showers in afternoon, temperatures in the 60s Stage winner: Mark Cavendish (Columbia) won his second stage of this Tour with a brilliant finishing kick to fend off such experienced sprinters as Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Jimmy Casper (Agritubel). The “Cannonball” finished off great work by Columbia, with teammate Gerard Ciolek coming across the line second ahead of third-place Casper.Live Coverage – Stage 8 Tour de France, 2008
- 01:09 PM: Good day and welcome
and welcome to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the eighth stage of the 95th edition of the Tour de France, a 172.5-kilometer race from Figeac to Toulouse.
Andrew Hood’s Tour de France Notebook, stage 8
WHAT MAKES CAV SO FAST?
It looks like Mark Cavendish was born to win.
Despite losing the wheel of his lead-out man Gerard Ciolek after riding cautiously through the final bend with just over one kilometer to go to avoid crashing on wet roads, Great Britain’s “Cannonball” was still able to blast across the line with apparent ease to win for the second time in a week.
At 23, Cavendish is using his raw finishing speed and tenacious personality to make up for any lack of experience he might have in what is his third grand tour start.
Saunier Duval’s Ricco was seen on the new wheel in the first stages of the Tour.
Saunier Duval’s Ricco was seen on the new wheel in the first stages of the Tour. Nonetheless, he used a pair of Carbon Ultimates on his way to both of his stage wins this year.
Frank Schleck says he’s happy to see Kirchen in yellow
CSC-Saxo Bank’s national Luxembourg champion Frank Schleck dismissed statements made by race leader Kim Kirchen Friday that there was no love lost between the compatriots. Following Friday’s difficult stage, which saw the CSC team of brothers Frank and Andy Schleck set a high tempo that nearly shattered Kirchen’s Columbia team, the race leader insinuated that the tactic had, at least in part, intended to shed the first Luxembourgian maillot jaune in 50 years.
Beltrán case casts pall over Tour
One week. That’s all it took before a doping scandal erupted on the 2008 Tour de France. Photos of Spanish veteran Manuel “Triki” Beltrán doing a perp walk as French police hauled him away in handcuffs from the Liquigas team hotel Friday evening pushed the Tour back into the type of headlines the race is trying to avoid. Perhaps it was appropriate that clouds and rain greeted riders in Figeac before the start of the eighth stage as the pall of cycling’s troubled past reared its ugly head after a week of titillating racing seemingly pushed scandals off the headlines.
Coach Neal Henderson reports on his travels with Taylor Phinney
And They’re Off! Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa! Today is day 2 for Taylor and me in South Africa. I left Boulder on Monday, was delayed departing from Denver to Dulles and barely made the flight from Dulles to Frankfurt.