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Mark Cavendish makes winning start with Omega Pharma-Quick Step

Former world champion takes sprint to win opening stage of Tour de San Luis

Mark Cavendish has got his career with Omega Pharma-Quick Step off to a cracking start by winning his debut race, Stage 1 of the Tour de San Luis in Argentina. The former world champion outsprinted Sacha Modolo of Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox to take the 164km stage from San Luis to Villa Mercedes. Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-Merida was third.

The latter denied Cavendish the points classification in the 2010 Tour de France and also in the mix in the finale were two other men who have beaten him to the green jersey, BMC Racing’s Thor Hushovd and Peter Sagan of Cannondale.

Cavendish’s Omega Pharma-Quick Step colleagues had ridden hard to reel in a four-man breakaway to help set up the bunch sprint and as he has done when winning races for his previous teams, HTC Highroad and Team Sky, the first thing he did after the stage was acknowledge their contribution.

"The team did a great job for me today," reflected Cavendish, quoted on his team’s website. "We were the first team to start riding, with Martin Velits at the beginning, we were present at the front the whole day.

“We got help from other teams too, the sprinter teams, but the guys just rode so strong and stayed with me the whole day. It is so nice to have a team with me that is 100 per cent committed. I'm so, so proud of the guys today.

"All the teams are fresh and motivated, so it was real, real chaos," he went on. "It was hard to stay together. I had a few guys with me, and in the finishing straight, within 1 kilometre or 400 meters it was just kind of about staying at the front.

“It was hard with a bit of a dip into the finish and nothing really marking 100 meters or 200 meters, so I just kind of jumped at 250 meters. I knew when I jumped I'd have a good shot at it, even though there was some wind.

“It feels good to be fresh with a good bunch of guys and on such a fast bike. The guys really looked after me, so I had 100 per cent energy at the finish. I'm so happy I could win.

"The pressure is now off, but we will continue to try and get more results for the team and try to set up our lead out as best we can," Cavendish added. "We also have a few guys for the GC here, so we will try to be present for both stage hunting and a good place in the GC."

Omega Pharma-Quick Step dedicated today’s win to Tom Boonen, who is recovering from an operation yesterday after contracting a septic infection in his left elbow.

The infection was the result of a cut sustained during an apparently innocuous fall from his mountain bike while on a training ride through woods near his home in Belgium the Sunday before last.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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9 comments

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antonio | 11 years ago
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'Fast bike' 'team 100%' a bit of re-Venge hey?

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Alan Tullett | 11 years ago
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"fast bike" like that one as well  3

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themartincox | 11 years ago
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"It is so nice to have a team with me that is 100 per cent committed. "

a compliment and a little dig in the same sentence, nice  3

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Sam1 replied to themartincox | 11 years ago
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Martin - LeJogLe wrote:

"It is so nice to have a team with me that is 100 per cent committed. "

a compliment and a little dig in the same sentence, nice  3

Cav's Inner child cant help but come out sometimes. Up to the Tour, Sky committed teams to riding for Cav in every race he went to win - the Desert races, the classisc, MSR (some would say to the detriment of plan B, EBH), T-A, the Giro for the Red jersey (leaving Uran and Henao to fend for themselves for GC), that chipper stage race he won. And GB rode for him and him alone at the Olympics.

I'm a big Cav fan but he can be very petty and childish sometimes.

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timbola | 11 years ago
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The whole house erupted with joy at this news this morning - positivity has indeed returned to the world of road cycling !  18

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Clenbutador | 11 years ago
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"It is so nice to have a team with me that is 100 per cent committed."

That made me chuckle......

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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Normal service has resumed.

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Some Fella | 11 years ago
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He looks very dishy in that photograph.
 105

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ajd | 11 years ago
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Brilliant, its good to have some positive news for a change. Well done Cav.

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