Britain’s Dan McLay (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) was seventh on the stage, his third top-10 finish in the opening four stages of his first Tour de France.
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Cavendish on Monday won his second stage of the 2016 edition, moving level with Hinault on 28, second all-time to Eddy Merckx’s record of 34.
“I thought I’d won when I crossed the line, but I couldn’t be sure”, said Cavendish.
“There is no way I could sit here and compare myself in any way to those two greats”.
“I wanted to be behind Greipel, “said the 31-year-old, who has had to balance his training for the Tour with preparing to take to the track for his third Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro next month”. Cavendish clenched his fist briefly and then just fiddled with his bike computer until the victory was confirmed then started celebrating wildly. It has given me a cause to ride for rather than just pressure to win.
Van Garderen said in a team statement that he is looking forward to racing in terrain better suited to him: “I’m really excited to head to the hills and get the GC sorted out a bit more”. “He’s a gutsy rider”.
“It’s Mark Cavendish. Everyone expects him to win every race he starts”, said Australian Mark Renshaw, Cavendish’s key lead-out rider on the bunch sprints for the Etixx-QuickStep team.
Region: The Stage began in the medieval city of Saumur in the Loire valley and concluded in Limoges, the capital of the Limousin region. After a pedestrian stage that took just six seconds under six hours, there was a frantic finish on the slight incline to the line.
5km trek from Granville to Angers.
“He went slow, we went slow also in the group – it was nice”. I’m glad that we took things into our own hands. “It’s a goal in a career to say, “I am capable of going in search of this trophy”.
“For 200km it was a transfer and the last 20km was OK”.
“You are going to see a lot more action than you have seen probably in any stage up till this moment – probably a break right from the gun that could be more of a break that could make it to the finish”, Ochowicz said.
France’s Julien Alaphilippe and Spain’s Alejandro Valverde lie 12 and 14 seconds behind the reigning road world champion.
“Today we can enjoy the Tour de France like in the old days: we ride slowly, we stop to kiss friends and family”.
Taking advantage of the pelotons pace, French rider Thomas Voeckler attacked midway through the stage and quickly bridged the gap to join Fonseca in the lead.
Unfortunately for the out-and-out sprinters, the road kicks-up in the last 500m, which will blunt their usual dominance in the closing stages, bringing the odd puncheur to the fore.
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After that it was up to Cavendish to put on another show.
