Tour De France 2012 Stage 2 Results: Mark Cavendish Makes a Statement

Stage 2 of the 2012 Tour de France saw the peloton still cycling its way through Belgium on the roads from Visé to Tournai.

It was a stage tailor-made for the sprinters with an undulating start, only one tiny (comparatively) category 4 climb and an almost flat finish.

As is the tradition, there was the inevitable breakaway which saw Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank) pick up the only point on offer, while his two breakaway companions Christophe Kern (Europcar) and Anthony Roux (FDJ-Bigmat) took out the first two places in the intermediate sprint.

In an eerie throwback to last year’s HTC-Highroad sprint combination, Team Sky’s Mark Cavendish’s former leadout men, Matt Goss (Orica-Greenedge) and Mark Renshaw (Rabobank), led Cavendish to the lower points at the intermediate sprint.

Inevitably, the breakaway was slowly reeled in, with only Roux showing any resistance with an ultimately futile attempt to stay off the front of the bunch.

This stage, however, was always going to come down to the final sprint.

As the pace increased, the peloton started to stretch out, achieving speeds in excess of 45 mph, and the peloton became a living thing, pulsing and surging, changing shape constantly like a school of excessively colourful tropical fish.

In a heart-stopping sprint to the finish, Cavendish took on and beat his greatest rival in this Tour, Lotto’s Andre Greipel, coming from behind to claim victory by a half-wheel.

Those few detractors who still believe that Mark Cavendish is overrated must now doff their cap to the Manx Missile’s brilliance.

Thoughts that Cavendish couldn’t win without his leadout team have been comprehensively dispelled, with Cavendish borrowing a tow from rival teams, eventually finding himself on the wheel of Greipel, which catapulted him to the victory and threw down the gauntlet in the battle for the green jersey.

The big question is whether Cavendish will see out the Tour or return to England to prepare for the Olympic road race. Opinion is divided, but should he return home he will rob the race of one of its great draw cards.

The overall general classification standings remain unchanged, with RadioShack-Nissan’s Fabian Cancellara retaining the yellow jersey, Morkov keeping his polka-dot jersey and Liquigas-Cannondale rider Peter Sagan retaining the points leader's green jersey.

Stage 3 will see the sprinters work a little harder with four categorised climbs towards the end of the stage. Expect to see the GC contenders Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins towards the front of the bunch looking to make an early statement.

Standings after Stage 2.

1.	CANCELLARA Fabian	RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	10h 02' 31''
2.	WIGGINS Bradley	SKY PROCYCLING	10h 02' 38''	+ 00' 07''
3.	CHAVANEL Sylvain	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	10h 02' 38''	+ 00' 07''
4.	VAN GARDEREN Tejay	BMC RACING TEAM	10h 02' 41''	+ 00' 10''
5.	BOASSON HAGEN Edvald	SKY PROCYCLING	10h 02' 42''	+ 00' 11''
6.	MENCHOV Denis	KATUSHA TEAM	10h 02' 44''	+ 00' 13''
7.	GILBERT Philippe	BMC RACING TEAM	10h 02' 44''	+ 00' 13''
8.	EVANS Cadel	BMC RACING TEAM	10h 02' 48''	+ 00' 17''
9.	NIBALI Vincenzo	LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE	10h 02' 49''	+ 00' 18''
10.	HESJEDAL Ryder	GARMIN-SHARP-BARRACUDA	10h 02' 49''	+ 00' 18''