Tour Victory in View, Wiggins Gifts Cavendish a Win
For Bradley Wiggins, it's time to start handing out the gifts at the Tour de France.
With victory looking locked up, Wiggins was thinking all about payback for unusually unsung teammate Mark Cavendish on Friday, helping to lead him out to a 22nd career Tour stage victory.
The one-two-three punch in Stage 18 from Wiggins, Cavendish and their British Sky team might put their Olympic rivals on notice: Team Britain may well be a force in the road race at the London Games.
Wiggins' ambitions to become Britain's first Tour winner is Sky's priority, and Cavendish has taken a back seat — even leading his team leader over the climbs that he often dreads.
Once Wiggins got through Thursday's mountain finale with his grasp on the yellow jersey, he could cede some limelight to a dutiful Cavendish as the race began heading toward Paris for Sunday's finish.
Friday's ride along four small hills over 222.5 kilometers (138 miles) from Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde was a transitional stage before the time trial on Saturday.
Wiggins, Cavendish and the Sky team made it look easy with an almost textbook sprint setup. With about 1.3 kilometers left, Wiggins - rare for a yellow-jersey holder - took the head of the pack and chased down six breakaway riders, then peeled away with about a kilometer to go.
The Sky train motored ahead and Cavendish, showing he's perhaps the world's most explosive rider, whirred around the remaining escapees in the last few hundred meters to win by a couple of bike lengths.
Luis Leon Sanchez, seeing Cavendish speed by, appeared to sigh with resignation at the Briton's velocity. By the end, Cavendish beat Matt Goss of Australia in second and Peter Sagan of Slovakia in third.
Cavendish collected his second stage win of this Tour.
"I just used the slipstreams," he said. "I have used this technique to win 22 stages ... it's a magic number - there's one more to go."
With the time trial as the last race challenge — a discipline that Wiggins dominates — he could afford to help Cavendish, so long as it didn't hurt his hopes of winning the general classification (GC).
"This morning, we decided to put the train in place and help Mark in the final," Wiggins said, after hugging Cavendish at the finish. "It's my gift to him."
"He's been an incredible teammate the last couple of weeks. It's nice to be able to pay him back," he said. For Cavendish, "it's been hard every morning, thinking about the GC and maybe sacrificing some sprint stages."
Wiggins' show of deference bared his mastery and understanding of the sport. Winning the Tour isn't just about scaling ascents, powering in time trials and avoiding crashes on the course — it's also about stroking egos and keeping crucial teammates happy.
"Once again he showed, if there was any doubt, that he is the fastest man in the world," Wiggins said of Cavendish.
Cavendish is unused to sharing the limelight. Some call him the best sprinter ever, and his victory Friday gave him the same number of Tour stage wins that seven-time champion Lance Armstrong had.
The Manx Missile, at 27, is far from through yet — and many predict he'll win a fourth straight stage victory Sunday on the Champs-Elysees and earn a claim to his own Champagne, not just Wiggins'.
Cavendish suggested that Friday's victory was a good omen for the Olympics: "It's really important, especially in the fashion I did it ... It can really give me confidence I've come out of this Tour de France in good condition."
Wiggins has switched to road cycling after a successful Olympic track career, in which he won three golds. He'll be one of the favorites to win his fourth in the London time-trial, while Cavendish is the man on the road race.
Saturday's time trial presents a 53.5-kilometer (33-mile) loop from Bonneval to Chartres. Riders will leave one-by-one from a ramp in the race against the clock, in reverse order of the standings.