Don’t dismiss Mark Cavendish yet. That’s the message from the Manx sprinter after he misfired in the opening sprinters’ stage of this year’s Tour de France, from Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon, won by Garmin’s Tyler Farrar.
Cavendish is right to remain confident. In last year’s Tour, he was written off, derided as a desperate kamikaze by the French press after he was blamed for a pile-up in the first stage in Brussels. By the end of the Tour he had won five stages, including the prestigious finale on the Champs-Elysees.
Cavendish will surely get his eye in and his team will have better days than they did on the road to Redon. Tomorrow’s uphill finish, on the Mur-de-Bretagne, though, looks well suited to Philippe Gilbert, the Belgian who won the first stage and is emerging as a potential contender for the green jersey.
Gilbert has already dominated one similar finish this season, when he won the Fleche-Wallonne classic, which finishes atop the Mur de Huy in the Belgian Ardennes. More of the same powerful racing is expected tomorrow, but it is Cadel Evans who looks the most likely candidate for the yellow jersey — unless Geraint Thomas of Sky can surprise the Australian on the short but very sharp climb.