Mark Cavendish wins London-Surrey Cycle Classic 2011 - Cycling News
Mark Cavendish from Great Britain showed his tremendous performance in Olympic game test event in London on Sunday, August 14.
In the final 3 kilometres, Cavendish avoids crash and managed to cross the distance of 140 kilometres in 3 hours, 18 minutes and 11 seconds. The Italian cyclist Sacha Modolo was runner-up with same timing of Mark.
Samuel Dumoulin (France) was in third place ahead of Stuart O' Grady and Michal Golas.
Cavendish told the media, "I can tell you that this is best group of British riders we've ever had. Together, this is the first real time we've ridden together as a unit and it was liking riding with my trade team or a team that had been together for two
or three years.”
In the beginning of the stage the group of four cyclists managed to go away from the peloton while England was the only team who managed to begin to chase and gain a lead of six minutes mark.
The four cyclists including, Liam Holohan (Team Raleigh), Cleberson Weber (Brazil), Kristian House (Rapha Condor - Sharp) and Tom Murray (Sigma Sport - Specialized) gained a lead of 3 minutes but after 50 kilometres mark all of them managed to stretch out
6 minutes and 32 seconds.
In the Box Hill, House gain maximum points on the first and second ascents of the stage but on the second time Weber cracked and Murray increased his pace to follow him.
England worked well and admitted they were help the Great-Britain team’s Cavendish and he increased his pace after 30 kilometres to go. The two cyclists including, Haussler and Paolini working together but failed to gain a lead.
In the finale a crashed ruled out Tyler Farrar who already faced a problem of a puncture while the crash itself also involved Mark and Japanese teams. After few kilometres, Cavendish controlled the situation and again increased his pace. He easily beat the
other cyclists and took a title of London-Surrey Cycle classic.
He further added, “It's not just the hill, it's double the distance for the race. For the race it wasn't about getting a feel for next year's race. You can't get a sense of how the 2012 race will go, but you can get a feel for this course and the route is
good."
Jure Kocjan also tried to catch the leading riders but failed to hold the pace and grabbed the 15th place with the difference of 7 seconds ahead of Roger Hammond (Great Britain) and Ian Stannard.
In the next 2012 Olympics, the Men’s race distance of 250 kilometres will extend after the seven more loops while the Women’s race distance will remain same.
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