Cavendish wins 18th stage of Tour de France; Contador remains leader
— Mark Cavendish showed he needed no help in sprint finishes when he won the 123-mile 18th stage of the Tour de France in commanding fashion Friday.
The British cyclist, despite being without teammate Mark Renshaw, who was thrown out of the Tour for head-butting in Stage 11, surged at the end of the stage to outshine New Zealand’s Julian Dean and Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi.
Spain’s Alberto Contador finished safely in the main bunch and retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey with an eight-second advantage over Andy Schleck of Luxembourg.
It was Cavendish’s fourth stage victory on this Tour and his 14th overall.
He also added points in his bid to become the first British rider to win the green jersey for the points leader.
Cavendish is in third place in the green-jersey competition, 16 behind first-place Petacchi, who took the green jersey back from Thor Hushovd, who trails the Italian rider by 10 points.
Italy’s Daniel Oss, Denmark’s Matti Breschel and France’s Benoit Vaugrenard and Jerome Pineau attacked almost from the start.
Saturday’s 19th stage is a 32.3-mile time trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac.
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