Tour de France Stage 18 Results: Mark Cavendish Unstoppable in Sprint

After the previous four days of climbing through the seemingly endless mountains of the Pyrenees, the peloton could again relax as the Tour approached its final three flat stages.

With many sore and fatigued bodies, the teams of the two leading general classification riders—Saxo Bank and Astana—could leave others to set the pace for the stage.

Stage 18 was one for the sprinters.

The almost completely flat, 198-kilometer ride from Salies-de-Béarn to Bordeaux is tailor made for the fast men of the pack, and they did not disappoint. Teams HTC, Lampre, and Milram formed up at the front of the chase group to ensure that their teammates were in the best possible position to be launched at the line.

Andy Schleck spent some time with the race doctor late in stage and was keen for the cameras to be trained away from him, suggesting that he either didn’t want Astana to see that he had a serious problem, or it was an embarrassing problem that required him to expose parts that he would prefer to keep unseen.

That will be one to watch.

The predictable breakaway again came early with a group of four establishing themselves a lead of between two and three minutes.

As is almost always the case, this group was doomed to failure and was kept in check by a peloton determined not to waste too much energy and with about 30 km to go, the peloton decided that it was time to bring them down.

Three of the breakaway were swallowed up with about 12 km to go, but Liquigas rider Daniel Oss made a brave break for home, trying to maintain a 30-second lead on a peloton that was pumping along at 70 km/h.

He failed with five km to go.

Mark Cavendish again proved just how far ahead of the pack he really is. Despite losing Mark Renshaw who normally shepherds him to the line, Cavendish has proven again that if he is in the first half dozen riders at the end of the stage, then there isn’t a rider who can go with him.

It was a blisteringly fast finish into a headwind and yet Cavendish was still accelerating away from his rivals as he crossed the line.

In the general classification, there has been no change from yesterday and so we go into the time-tria with Schleck needing to make up an unlikely eight seconds on Alberto Contador. Fatigue and soreness will play a big part in the time-trial and any mechanical problems or a crash will mean the yellow jersey will be lost.

As a side note, what the hell were Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz doing on the podium with Alberto Contador? Surely they get enough media exposure without crashing Contador’s party. Disgraceful.

From there, it is the final day ride into Paris,where there is a convention to not challenge the yellow jersey,meaning we will know the winner of the 2010 Tour de France when Alberto Contador crosses the line as the final time-trial rider.

A lot can happen in the interim. It will be another fascinating day.

Standings after Stage 18

1.    CONTADOR A.              88h 09' 48"
2.    SCHLECK A.                00' 08"
3.    SANCHEZ S.                03' 32"
4.    MENCHOV D.               03' 53"
5.    VAN DEN BROECK J.      05' 27"
6.    GESINK R.                   06' 41"
7.    RODRIGUEZ OLIVER J.    07' 03"
8.    HESJEDAL R.                09' 18"
9.    KREUZIGER R.               10' 12"
10.    HORNER C.                 10' 37"