Cavendish makes it four!

He's said time and time again it's not an objective, but regardless of what he says, Mark Cavendish is poised to win a bright-green-coloured jersey he could only dream of wearing one Tour de France ago.

Stage 11's uphill finish in Saint-Fargeau - not as difficult as the sixth stage to Barcelona, but much harder than the previous stage - was expected to suit overnight points leader Thor Hushovd ((Cervélo TestTeam) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) far more than Cavendish. Yet once again, reading like a page out of Tuesday's Tour de France book, Columbia-HTC performed a copycat procedure 50 kilometres from the line: assembling their forces to chase down the early escape, catching them within the final kilometres to discourage any further breakaway attempts and leaving their strongest quicks - George Hincapie and Mark Renshaw - to deliver Cavendish the perfect lead-out.

And when Renshaw dropped off his main man at the slightly later 150 metres-to-go mark, 24-year-old Cavendish accelerated on the rise as if it were flat.

"The guys were able to adapt to that situation. Normally, we have two guys in the last kilometre - today we had four, because they had to deliver me later [to the line]," Cavendish said of his team's strategy. "I had to be delivered to 150 metres and I kept the gear small. I was sprinting in the 13 or 14 [sprocket] instead of the 11, and I was able to get the jump on Thor [Hushovd]."

Tailing off ever so slightly towards the line, Farrar may have stood a chance of victory if there were another 30 or 40 metres more. Still, Wednesday's victor was a clear winner as he continues to frustrate the hell out of the American, forced to settle for another second. Just for a change, Yauheni Hutarovich (Française des Jeux) finished third ahead of Oscar Freire (Rabobank), the Spaniard on the improve, while Hushovd could only manage fifth, the maillot vert slipping off his shoulders as a result.

Un po' problemo for Nocentini

Unlike the previous day, maillot jaune Rinaldo Nocentini did not come off scot-free on Wednesday, caught up in one of a number of crashes along the region's narrow, winding roads though not seriously hurt. And so, with the 15-second deficit awarded to 106 riders after the previous stage to Issoudun reversed, it's left the leader board's top-10 unchanged since the finish of the seventh leg to Andorra Arcalis.

"A crash occurred after 20 or 30 kilometres with many riders involved, including myself. But really, it was nothing serious and I was able to make it back to the peloton," Nocentini said of his fall.

"[Stage 13 on] Friday will be a very tough day, but I'm in a very good condition right now, so I hope to keep the maillot jaune all the way to Sunday [Stage 15]," he said.

Maillot vert a two-horse race to Paris

Cavendish's fourth victory at this year's Grande Boucle also equals Barry Hoban's British record of eight Tour stage wins but in a quarter of the time it took Hoban. While Cavendish said he's honoured for his name to be considered in the same sentence, quite clearly, they're not the best of friends.

"It's nice to be able to be spoken in the same sentence as Barry Hoban, one of the great British pros. He's given me some advice, but he's also said some things sometimes that offended me a little bit," said Cavendish, who is still some way off Eddy Merckx's extraordinary 34-stage-win feat.

Cavendish, on 176 points, is the new maillot vert by a margin of seven from Hushovd while third-placed Jose Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) lies too far behind to be worth mentioning.

This two-horse race for green to Paris is becoming an ever-intriguing one. We know Hushovd will most likely be stronger in the third week, and we know Cavendish suffered through the Pyrenees. So upon whose shoulders this jersey rests on seems to depend on how Cavendish and his lead-out brigade fair in the Alps. Then again, if he wins another two stages, it may well become out of reach for Hushovd - provided Cav' makes it to Paris, which he fully intends to do.

"I've raced 11 days of the Tour de France; for sure I'm going to feel a little bit tired," said Cavendish. "There are still 10 more days of racing to go, and I'm going to do 10 more days of racing. I've got a good team that looks after me; keeps me out of as much danger as possible, keeps me as relaxed and as fresh as possible."

Racist? Not me, says Cav' - just that "I'm an arsehole"

Asked about an article in Wednesday's L'Equipe that said he was mouthing out to a French rider during the previous stage and being derogatory towards the French people, Cavendish refuted being labelled as a racist.

"I think I get hot-headed sometimes and it's irrelevant what nationality they are," Cavendish said. "I got shown the article this morning and I had to laugh at it. It would have been nice to have a name of the writer of the article to find out where this came from or the name of the rider that supposedly said this, so I could go and see what the problem was and find out."

Exuding a few nervous laughs, the occasionally outspoken British rider who's doing his best of late to contain inflammatory comments because of the trouble it gets him into, apologised for any offence caused, but says there's perhaps a reason behind why the French sports daily wrote such an article about him.

"I take it as a compliment they [L'Equipe] go and try and start s--- about something that's not my bike riding, because they've got nothing to criticise my bike riding about.

"I love to come here to race and I love to be here, and for sure, I'm going to get arsey [sic] at some riders because I'm an arsehole, but it's irrelevant of nationality, and it's irrelevant of anything else. Like I said, I'm an arsehole," he said.

Come again or go away?

Vatan, which means to go away, is a member of the Association of French Towns with unusual meanings, along with Arnac-la-Poste (cheat the post office), Bouzillé (broken) and Trécon (very stupid). But perhaps the funniest tidbit lies in Vatan's meaning and its juxtaposed motto proudly displayed in this town of just 2,000 inhabitants situated in the Champagne Berry region: "Vatan...you'll be back." What the...?

Ignoring the motto, Johan Van Summeren (Silence Lotto) and Marcin Sapa (Lampre-NGC) decided to take on Vatan's literal meaning 24 kilometres into the 192-kilometre journey to Saint-Fargeau, on an almost identical parcours to the day before.

Forty one kilometres in, the Belgian-Polish lead pair - quite the odd couple with the gangly legs of 197-centimetre-tall Van Summeren and the 179 stockier centimetres of Sapa - were 4:15 in front, which turned out to be their maximum advantage, no where near enough to make the move a success. Still, stranger things have happened at the Tour.

Run at a brisk 44.0 km/h average for the first three hours, the 40.8 km/h average for the third hour in comparison to the near 50 km/h first-hour average was indicative of fatigue within the break, their lead no more than two minutes 50 kilometres from Saint-Fargeau. Meanwhile, back in the bunch, the peloton traversed the small hills in the départments of Nievre and Yonne without difficulty, posing little problem for the supremely fit Tour de France athlete.

Shortly after, Garmin-Slipstream's Ryder Hesjedal strangely entangled himself, causing his bike to stutter and splutter like a diesel car filled with petrol, and with his front wheel locked, the Canadian went over his bars. Thankfully, his fall wasn't at speed and he was soon on his bike and receiving the deserved attention of the Tour's mobile race doctor.

Twenty kilometres from historical Saint-Fargeau, best known for its magnificent 12th century castle and home to numerous historical figures including Jacques Coeur, the Duchess of Montpensier, first cousin of Louis XIV and named ‘La Grande Mademoiselle, the Columbia-led peloton was now 47 seconds behind Van Summeren and Sapa.

Breathing heavily down their necks, it was all over red rover for the pair five clicks from home, the entire Columbia-HTC squad setting the pace up front. Slightly uphill the last 500 metres, it was expected to pose a few problems for the Might From The Isle of Man - but no such luck for Farrar and Hushovd, Cav's jump again proving superior.

For images of stage 11 click here

Columbia-HTC keeping the dream for green alive

Repeatedly asked if he's going for the points classification at the Tour or not, Mark Cavendish tends to avoid the question, stating his primary objective is to win stages and make it to Paris. However, after he won Wednesday's stage to Saint-Fargeau, Columbia-HTC's sprint king is now seven points clear of Thor Hushovd in a classification he claims not to care too much about.

It's a different story when Cyclingnews spoke with his number one lead-out guy, Mark Renshaw, at the stage start in Vatan.

"I think the competition's always been alive," Renshaw said.

"Definitely, it's a lot tighter now - it's going to be a lot harder. We said all along it's not the main objective - the main objective is to win stages. But in saying that, if Cavendish wins five stages, it's a very realistic goal of taking home the green jersey.

"It's in the back of our heads to take the green, it's always nice. It's good for the team and great for Cav'. We're going to be chasing it, but at the end of the day, we're here to win stages," he said.

Those who witnessed the superlative performances of Renshaw and Cavendish the previous day, it appeared obvious both had fared well through the hat-trick of Pyrenean stages at the end of Tour's first week, but the stocky Aussie from Bathurst in country New South Wales admitted there were times when both were struggling.

"They certainly weren't easy," he said with a wry grin. "For us, we have to go at 100 percent every day just to get through the Pyrenees. I had a really bad day up to Andorra; [I] just didn't feel good on the bike, so that really hurt me for the next two days. And then Cav' started hurting in the end, so we both had bad days. But we recovered well on the rest day, and I think that's what made a big difference."

Acting as the lead-out man for Cavendish's main rival and arguably the strongest sprinter in the peloton last year with Crédit Agricole, and now in the same capacity for the fastest finisher at Columbia-HTC, what would Renshaw do if he were Thor Hushovd?

"Obviously, Thor's going to have to try and pick up points in the intermediate sprints. He's shown that's the way he can win the green jersey. Back a few years ago [in 2005], he picked up a lot of points at those intermediate sprints after climbs. Cavendish is not climbing that good - that's Thor's major advantage," he said, Renshaw and Cavendish sure to suffer some more when the Tour heads to the Alps.

Praised by the Columbia-HTC sprint king as "the world's best lead-out man", it's no doubt giving Renshaw a fantastic apprenticeship and a taste of what may be if he decides to become that quickest man. For now, Renshaw appears content in his role and is most likely generously paid. Still, there's nothing like the exhilaration of crossing the line first.

And like the battle for the maillot vert, that may also be in the back of his mind.