Live TV coverage of the fifth stage of the 2007 Tour began with the image of Mark Cavendish, bandages on both arms, desperately battling to hang on to the back of the peloton, for as long as his weary legs could manage. The 22 year old sprinter has endured tough times over the past few days, but he is taking it all in good part.
Today’s stage, with no less than eight classified climbs en route, tested the Isle of Man sprinter to his limits, but his intention remains to hang on, through the weekend’s Alpine stages, until the first rest day in Tignes, next Monday.
It looks likely to be a struggle. ‘Cav’ was last finisher of his team and thus last man on the T-Mobile bus, parked up on a hill some distance beyond the finish line, his late arrival greeted with ironic applause by his team mates.
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“Today I discovered the real Tour!” Cavendish said with a smile, as he climbed off his bike. He had finished in third last place on the stage, more than eighteen minutes behind the day’s winner, Filippo Pozzatto.
“It was grim all day,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve felt this bad on a bike for a long time. Heavy roads, up and down, windy — and the other teams just driving hard on the front. I was okay until the second category climb, but after that it was grim. Just grim?”
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Geraint Thomas of the Barloworld team had a marginally better day, coming across the finish line a little over eleven minutes behind Pozzatto. “It was a pretty hard day, once they really started racing on the climbs,” Thomas said. “But I hit my knee on the barriers yesterday so it’s quite sore. I was looking after that and just trying to get through really.”
Like Cavendish, Thomas knows that this weekend’s Alpine stages will be tough. “But I am here for the experience and I’ll have to see what happens,” he said. “The plan is to try and get through to Tignes.
After that, who knows?”