British Mark Cavendish celebrates as he crosses the finish line and wins the 6th stage of 96th Giro d’Italia cycling race from Mola di Bari to Margherita di Savoia yesterday in Margherita di Savoia.
MARGHERITA DI SAVOIA, Italy: Britain’s Mark Cavendish claimed his second win on the 96th Giro d’Italia yesterday when he dominated a bunch sprint at the end of the 169km sixth stage between Mola di Bari and Margherita de Savoia.
Cavendish burst out from behind the wheel of Omega-Pharma teammate Gert Steegmans to finish ahead of Italian Elia Viviani and Australian Matt Goss.
“I’m so happy, I’m absolutely buzzing,” said Cavendish, who now has 12 victories on the three-week race having won the opener in Naples last Saturday.
Viviani, who was left banging on his handlebars in frustration when Cavendish beat him on the opening stage, said this time he had no argument.
“In Naples I came close, but today Mark was definitely number one,” said the Italian, a former track rider who is still looking for his first professional victory on the road.
“I took his wheel and looked to benefit from some of his slipstream but there was no way I could get past him. But I’ll be trying again.”
Italian Luca Paolini of the Katusha team retained the race leader’s pink jersey.
Paolini, who is not an overall victory contender, is expected to give up the jersey after or before Saturday’s first big battle between the favourites on stage eight’s 54.8 km time trial between Gabicce Mare and Saltara.
Of the overall contenders, Italian Vincenzo Nibali is best placed in fourth at 31sec adrift, with defending champion Ryder Hesjedal and race favourite Bradley Wiggins, the defending Tour de France champion, in fifth and sixth respectively at 34.
Another former Tour winner, Australian Cadel Evans, remained 10th at 42.
In a frantic finish to the race Wiggins was the victim of two incidents that could have cost him time. First he suffered a mechanical problem which required his Sky team to dig deep to rejoin the main peloton containing all his rivals.
Just as they had closed the gap, a crash which took down several riders occurred 34km from the finish line, allowing a number of small groups to pull off the front.
Wiggins’ fears, however, were allayed in the final kilometres as teammate Christian Knees, and other teams with pink jersey contenders, kept the pace high at the front before the sprinters’ teams took over for their fast men in the closing 5km.AFP
