The third stage win for Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia) (Image credit: Stephen McMahon)
Team Columbia's Mark Cavendish took his third straight win in the Tour of Ireland, this time taking the 201km stage from Ballinrobe to Gallway. The win was the Manx-man's 16th of the season, his 15th sprint win on the road, and 25th professional victory. This, along with four Tour de France stage wins this year have confirmed him as the sport's top sprinter.
But despite his ever growing popularity, his home crowd will not see him in the upcoming Tour of Britain. Instead, Cavendish will head to the United States for the Tour of Missouri..
Team Columbia confirmed that Cavendish would take on the September 8-14 event. He will be joined by former world time trial champion Michael Rogers, George Hincapie, Michael Barry, Bernhard Eisel, John Devine, Craig Lewis and Giro d'Italia stage winner Marco Pinotti.
Other notables on the surprisingly strong Tour of Missouri start list are Liquigas' young stand-outs Tour de Suisse champion Roman Kreuziger and Vincenzo Nibali, Garmin-Chipotle's Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie, Tony Cruz (BMC), Rory Sutherland (Health Net) and Dominique Rollin (Toyota).
