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Tour of Britain 2014: Mark Cavendish finishes third despite crash Tour of Britain 2014: Mark Cavendish finishes third despite crash
(about 2 hours later)
For Harrogate in July, read Liverpool in September. The seasons change, the stage is the Tour of Britain opener rather than the Tour de France but the German powerhouse Marcel Kittel marches on. Victory in the first stage of the British Tour after eight laps of an eight-mile circuit in the heart of the city gave Kittel the first yellow jersey on the finish line outside the Liver Building, and as in Yorkshire, Mark Cavendish was taken to hospital after the stage due to a crash. For Harrogate in July, read Liverpool in September. The seasons change, the stage is the Tour of Britain opener rather than the Tour de France, but the German powerhouse Marcel Kittel marches on. Victory in the first stage of the British Tour after eight laps of an eight-mile circuit in the heart of the city gave Kittel the first yellow jersey on the finish line outside the Royal Liver Building and, as in Yorkshire, Mark Cavendish hit the deck, although the implications were unclear after the stage.
Compared with the Manxman’s fortunes the last time the pair met – in Harrogate he ended up on his back in the finish straight with an injured shoulder and was out of the race – this was not quite as spectacular, although the effects were still to be assessed as Cavendish was taken to hospital after the stage due to an earlier crash, reportedly while being paced back to the peloton following a toilet stop, which left him with an injured leg. Compared with the Manxman’s fortunes the last time he and Kittel met – in Harrogate he ended up on his back in the finish straight with an injured shoulder and was out of the race – this did not quite look as serious, and Cavendish did well to take third place in a chaotic headwind finish behind Kittel and the Italian Nicola Ruffoni, sprinting as he was with an injured left leg. There were initial reports that he had been taken to hospital for a check-up but a press statement from his team did not make it clear whether this was the case.
His immediate reaction after the stage was: “it’s fucked.” In spite of the injury, Cavendish showed late speed in a chaotic headwind sprint overhauling Tyler Farrar to take third place behind Nicola Ruffoni of Italy, with Ben Swift fifth and the British amateur Dan McLay building on his recent stage win in the Tour de l’Avenir to take seventh. “I had to change my cleats in the beginning of the stage,” Cavendish said. “I was coming back after and I was behind a car. Someone had to stop for a puncture so the car slammed on its brakes, and there was an island in the road. If I went right, I would hit a traffic island, so I went left and I whacked another car. I hit it with my left leg and I was down on the road.
Kittel admitted afterwards that he had enjoyed his share of good luck, missing a final-kilometre crash that brought down Ian Stannard of Team Sky, to take the first yellow jersey thanks to time bonuses at the finish which left him 4sec ahead of Ruffoni. “It really was messy. It’s always difficult if there is a downhill bit just before the finish as the bunch moves really fast and it’s hard to hold your position. You have to leave it late and the team were lucky to find a way through on the right.” “I immediately felt a lot of pain on my quadriceps. It took me a lap to come back because our team car couldn’t assist me immediately because it was on the front. At that point I wasn’t planning to sprint, either, it was painful. But after a couple of laps we decided to just try anyway, but sprint seated because I was in pain. Accidents like this are a part of cycling and it’s just a matter of bad luck.”
He was also fortunate to have a Giant-Shimano team mate on hand to react immediately to a late attack by Adam Blythe, the Yorkshire sprinter with the Hereford-based NFTO squad. Blythe, who won the Ride London Classic in August, immediately gained several bike lengths, but Kittel had him in his sights and overhauled him comfortably in the final 200m. “I saw it in slow motion,” said Rapha Condor-JLT’s team manager, John Herety, who said that the incident occurred as a group of riders were returning to the peloton after a toilet stop. “We had stopped to service Chris Opie, who needed a wheel change. As the [Cavendish] group approached us, the IAM team car [who were behind Rapha in the convoy] did not go around us. It slowed quickly, maybe because there were other riders on the right-hand side of the car. Cav was on his bumper, and had nowhere to go. He hit our left wing mirror and went into our mechanic as he crashed. It looked pretty heavy; the impact snapped the mirror off its bracket.” Asked about his leg, Cavendish’s : “It’s fucked.”
Just 15km into the stage over a circuit which ran from the Liver Building for a full lap of Sefton Park before returning to the finish line, Cavendish could be see stopping by the roadside and sitting down on the kerb, then taking an allen-key out of his pocket and calmly adjusting the cleat on one of his shoes. Kittel admitted afterwards that he had enjoyed his share of good luck, missing a final-kilometre crash that brought down Ian Stannard of Team Sky, to take the first yellow jersey thanks to time bonuses at the finish which left him four seconds ahead of Ruffoni. “It really was messy. It’s always difficult if there is a downhill bit just before the finish as it’s hard to hold your position. The team were lucky to find a way through on the right.”
This is an unlikely manoeuvre in a major race – the usual option is to swap a shoe for one carried in a support car – but the pace was relatively calm and he was dragged back to the peloton behind the back bumper of a team car, which might be frowned upon if the race were at its height, but which is permitted by the referees in such relaxed circumstances. He was also fortunate to have a Giant-Shimano team-mate on hand to react immediately to a late attack by Adam Blythe, the Yorkshire sprinter with the Hereford-based NFTO squad. Blythe, who won the Ride London Classic in August, immediately gained several bike lengths but Kittel had him in his sights and overhauled him comfortably in the final 200 metres.
Team Sky had earlier made their intentions clear, with Bernhard Eisel protecting Sir Bradley Wiggins early on, Wiggins prominent in the final kilometres keeping himself and Swift out of trouble, and David López appearing at the front of the string in the second half of the stage to assist Kittel’s Giant team in pursuit of the day’s four-man escape, which enjoyed a 90sec lead with 33km remaining. Team Sky had earlier made their intentions clear, with Bernhard Eisel protecting Sir Bradley Wiggins early on, Wiggins prominent in the final kilometres keeping himself and Ben Swift out of trouble, and David López appearing at the front of the string in the second half of the stage to assist Kittel’s Giant team in pursuit of the day’s four-man escape, which enjoyed a 90sec lead with 33km remaining.
The quartet were a study in high-vis green and uber-cool black, consisting as they did of the local rider Mark McNally of the An Post team, Sonny Colbrelli of Bardiani – the men in green – along with Blythe’s Welsh team mate Jon Mould, and another British-based rider, Richard Handley of Rapha-Condor-JLT. The local rider Mark McNally of the An Post team, Sonny Colbrelli of Bardiani along with Blythe’s Welsh team-mate Jon Mould, and another British-based rider, Richard Handley of Rapha Condor-JLT, had their eyes on the intermediate prizes: Colbrelli and Mould fought out the three intermediate sprints – on laps two, four and six – with the Italian showing greater explosivity each time, while McNally dominated the three hill primes on the drag up Parliament Street to take an early grip on the King of the Mountains jersey.
They had their eyes on the intermediate prizes, which offered some early prize money and podium time. So it was Colbrelli and Mould who fought out the three intermediate sprints – on laps two, four and six – with the Italian showing greater explosiveness each time, while McNally dominated the three hill primes on the drag up Parliament Street to take an early grip on the King of the Mountains jersey.
After what amounted to an extended prologue, where the goal for the overall contenders was to keep out of trouble, on Monday the race takes a more serious turn with a lengthy run to Llandudno, concluding with a lap of Great Orme’s hilly corniche road. The sprinters will fancy their chances again, but a second-category climb just three and a half miles from the finish will make this a far more complex proposition.