Cavendish eyes better on stage five

Mark Cavendish is looking for an improvement in the Tour de France
3 July 2013

Mark Cavendish will hope for his moment in the sun after a frustrating start to the Tour de France continued when his team were beaten by a single second in the team time trial on Tuesday.

His dreams of wearing the yellow jersey on the opening stage to Bastia on Saturday ended in the chaos caused when Orica GreenEdge's team bus struck the finish line gantry, and Cavendish then suffered on the two subsequent runs through the Corsican hills. His Omega Pharma-Quick Step team were favoured for the time trial - they are the reigning world champions - but they were pipped at the finish by Orica GreenEdge.

Cavendish let his frustration show on Twitter, writing: "B****cks! So close for @opqscyclingteam in today's TeamTimeTrial. Proud to be part of it. Just 1 second behind! Congrats to @Orica_GreenEDGE"

That it should be the Australians from Orica who won was perhaps a cruel irony given their key role on Saturday's shenanigans.

Not only was Cavendish a victim of circumstance then, but Tony Martin, his team-mate and the reigning world time trial champion, suffered multiple injuries in a crash which may have prevented him from giving his very best in the cause on Tuesday.

The disappointments have left Cavendish trailing badly in the points classification, where he has 25 points to the 74 of Peter Sagan - who won the green jersey last year. But a 219 kilometre run from Cagnes sur Mer to Marseille is designed to favour the sprinters despite a few short climbs towards the finish, and Cavendish is in need of a result.

Meanwhile, Team Sky have no such concerns as they were more than satisfied with their third place, three seconds off Orica GreenEdge's pace.

Coming into the Tour Sky were among the heavy favourites for Wednesday's stage but expectations had been revised downwards after Geraint Thomas - a double Olympic champion in the team pursuit - suffered a cracked pelvis on the opening stage of the Tour.

Thomas has ridden on heroically, even managing a few turns at the front of the Sky train on Tuesday, although he was far from full strength. In the light of that, third was a good result.

"Today is all about the team this has lifted the moral of the lads," team principal Sir Dave Brailsford said. "They all put in a good performance after what was a setback with (Geraint) and this will have settled them down. We haven't lost any real time, we're very close, that's where we want to be."

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