Cavendish clinches stage 7; Wiggins out

Updated on: 09 July,2011 07:33 AM IST |
AFP |

British sprint king Mark Cavendish took his victory tally on the Tour de France to 17 yesterday when he powered to victory in the seventh stage ahead of Italian veteran Alessandro Petacchi

British sprint king Mark Cavendish took his victory tally on the Tour de France to 17 yesterday when he powered to victory in the seventh stage ahead of Italian veteran Alessandro Petacchi.

Mark Cavendish

Norway's Thor Hushovd retained the leader's yellow jersey after the 218km ride over mainly flat terrain from Le Mans to Chateauroux.

The Garmin-Cervelo rider will go into the first of two consecutive days in the hilly Massif Central region with a 01sec lead on Australian Cadel Evans.

Cavendish, who claimed his first victory of the 98th edition on Wednesday, opened his Tour de France account at Chateauroux in 2008.

After a perfect lead-out in the final kilometres by his HTC-Highroad sprint train, the Isle of Man sprinter came out from behind the wheel of lead-out man Mark Renshaw to beat Petacchi with ease at the finish. Germany's Andre Greipel was third.

While one Britain was celebrating, however, another was crying tears of frustration. Around 43km from the finish, yellow jersey contender Bradley Wiggins was forced out of the race after being caught up in a crash and fracturing his collarbone. Team Sky leader Wiggins, recently crowned British road champion, got up holding his left arm and in obvious pain.