Cavendish sprints to stage victory in Salamanca

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The flattest stage of the Vuelta a España had field sprint written all over it, and once again the one-two finishing punch of HTC-Columbia's Matt Goss and Mark Cavendish proved unbeatable. Cavendish launched off of Goss's wheel with 180m to go on the slightly uphill finishing straight at the conclusion of stage 18 in Salamanca to earn his third stage victory of the Vuelta.

The Manxman, wearing the green points classification leader's jersey, outkicked runner-up Juan-Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank) and third placed Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto) and likely locked up the points jersey competition through to Madrid.

"It was a slightly uphill finish, it was really hard to find the right gear to use. I changed gears maybe five times in the last 500 metres," said Cavendish. "Quick Step did a great lead-out. They went very fast into the last corner. I had to wait a little bit later to go because it was uphill, I didn't have the jump because I was so in the red."

Cavendish was quick to praise the work of his teammates who put he and Goss into good position in the hectic closing kilometres. Despite the team missing critical lead-out personnel in Bernhard Eisel and Hadyen Roulston, HTC-Columbia has continued to perform yeoman's work for Cavendish.

"Martin Velits did a huge effort to catch Philippe Gilbert in the last ten kilometres," said Cavendish. "We got a bit far back with 4km to go, and with 2km to go Peter Velits, who is trying for the GC, put in a kilometre in the wind and pulled us up. Most GC riders would just sit in and look after their own ambitions, but it just goes to show how we work together as a team that he put in that effort."

The general classification contenders enjoyed a relatively easy day in the peloton as Vuelta leader Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) remained in the red jersey ahead of Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo Galicia) and Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia). With only a 38 second advantage over Mosquera, Nibali kept a close eye on his nearest rival and made sure he was attentive to any gaps in the sprint finale.

As the peloton sped along the slight rise to the finish, gaps did form in the wake of Goss's final push for Cavendish as the 14th finisher crossed the line five seconds down on the stage winner. No overall contenders finished in the top 13 and the top four on general classification, Nibali, Mosquera, Velits and Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank), all finished in the 15-man group five seconds behind Cavendish along with two other top 10 contenders Nicolas Roche (Ag2R La Mondiale) and Luis-Leon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne).

Four of the top 10 overall, however, conceded four seconds as they finished in the next group at nine seconds including Cervelo TestTeam's Xavier Tondo and Carlos Sastre, Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) and Tom Danielson (Garmin-Transitions).

"For us it hasn't been a quiet day at all," said Vuelta leader Nibali. "We had to be attentive all the time. In the end, it’s one more day with no problem. At the end, it’s been a bunch sprint.

"Tomorrow is another dangerous stage and I live day-by-day. On Saturday, Mosquera and I will play for the overall win at Bola del Mundo. I'm serene. I also know that luck will be an important factor."

An attempt to disrupt the inevitable

A group of eight riders escaped the clutches of the peloton after only 2km of racing and remained off the front for much of the 148.9km stage. The escapees included Dominik Roels (Team Milram), Alberto Benitez (Footon-Servetto), Juan Javier Estrada and Jose Toribio (Andalucia-Cajasur), Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alexandre Pichot (BBOX Bouygues Telecom), Daniele Pietropolli (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto).

With Pietropolli best placed on general classification, 58th overall at 1:37:30, and no threats to Cavendish trying to chip away at his points classification lead via the two intermediate sprints on tap, the break received the green light.

The teams of the sprinters, primarily HTC-Columbia, Garmin-Transitions and Liquigas-Doimo kept the break on a tight leash, however, as the octet's lead maxed out near three minutes before it was pegged back to approximately two minutes at kilometre 60. With 26 kilometres remaining their advantage dropped below one minute and the escapees knew they were doomed.

"After having worked a lot for [teammate] Philippe Gilbert when he led the Vuelta, I have more freedom and I have done my third breakaway in one week," said Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto), one of the eight escapees. "It was almost mission impossible since the bunch didn't let us have more than a two minute lead.

"We accelerated 40 or 50km away from Salamanca but it wasn't enough. Fortunately, my sixth place at the Lagos de Covadonga on a terrain that is not my forte makes me think that I haven't done all those breakaways for nothing."

The break was absorbed with 11km to go and once a solo attack by Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) was neutralised with 5km remaining the lead-out trains of the sprinters went to work for their respective fast men.

Quick Step came to the fore in the final kilometres, but Matt Goss (HTC-Columbia) once again shepherded Mark Cavendish into perfect position which the Manxman duly parlayed into his third victory of the 2010 Vuelta.

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