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Cavendish marks 21st victory of 2009 in Ireland
Briton claims fourth career stage win at the Tour of Ireland
Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia-HTC) sprinted to his twenty-first victory of the season in stage two of the Tour of Ireland on Saturday.
"It's always good to win," Cavendish said, "and though it was a tough finish we managed to take control of things with two kilometres to go. It was a team win, one guy crosses the line with his arms in the air, but it's a success for everybody.
"This is the first time I've gone really deep since July," said Cavendish, winner of six stages in the 2009 Tour de France. "I'm not going to be going for the overall here, but for sure it's an objective for the team. We won it last year with an amazing ride on the last day, and I think we can do it again."
After the Tour of Ireland, Cavendish's next race will be the Tour of Missouri in the United States from September 7 to 13.
"My objective there is a stage win. After that, I'll go on to the World Championships where I'll be going to support my teammates. Then I want to do Paris-Tours."
Saturday's victory was Cavendish's fourth career stage victory in the Tour of Ireland and the 68th win of the season for his team.
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Mark Cavendish
Key results
1st World Road Championships 2011
1st World Track Championships, Madison 2005, 2008
1st Points competition, Tour de France 2011
20 stage wins, Tour de France 2008-11
9 stage wins, Giro d’Italia, 2008-11
1st Points competition, Vuelta a España 2010
4 stages wins, Vuelta a España 2010
1st Milan-San Remo 2009
1st Scheleprijs 2007, 2008, 2011
2nd Points competition, Tour de France 2009, 2010Looking ahead to 2012
It will be hard for Mark Cavendish to top his 2011 season, winning the green jersey in the Tour de France and the rainbow stripes of World Champion – but Cavendish has big dreams, and they’re centred around July, riding the Tour de France and then the Olympic road race in London. Not that the rest of the peloton will be making it easy for him – and it will be interesting to see whether the move from HTC to Sky will affect his racing. Whatever happens, there are sure to be the usual fireworks!
