Mark Cavendish wins fifth stage of Tour de France - Times Online
Jeremy Whittle, Châteauroux

Cometh the hour, cometh the Manxman. Mark Cavendish, 23, emerged from the jostling mêlée at the climax of the 232-kilometre fifth stage of the Tour de France to support his claim as cycling’s top sprinter with an irresistible dash to the line in Châteauroux.

Cavendish made his Tour de France debut last year, when the race started in London, and had cut a dejected figure when a crash en route to Canterbury denied him the chance of success on home soil. But yesterday the rider from the Isle of Man made amends, securing his maiden victory in the Tour and leaving his rivals for dead as he took the first British stage win since David Millar’s victory in Béziers in 2002.

“It’s the biggest thing to have happened to me and to do it so young is massive,” Cavendish, of Team Columbia, said. “I came here with the intention of winning a stage and I would have gone home disappointed if I hadn’t.”

What an exciting finish … Nicolas Vogondy (the current French National Champion) sure looked like he squeaked out enough of a lead in the last kilometer to hold off the field until the finish, but Team Columbia (formerly Team High Road) pulled hard on the front, and the Manx Express popped out of the middle of the pack to fly away with the stage.

VeloNews | No Rock Racing for Tour de Georgia

Organizers on Thursday announced the 15, 8-rider teams that will compete in next month’s Tour de Georgia.

A total of 120 professional cyclists will compete in the 600-mile, seven-day event to be held April 21-27.

The final field:

• Astana
• CSC
• Gerolsteiner
• High Road
• Saunier Duval-Scott
• BMC
• Slipstream-Chipotle
• Symmetrics
• Bissell
• GE-Marco Polo
• Health Net-Maxxis
• Jelly Belly
• Jittery Joe’s
• Team Type 1
• Toyota-United

“This is not only the most international field we have had at Georgia, but one of the most elite as well. Usually you only see names like Hincapie, Zabriskie, Leipheimer and Millar at the Grand Tours. Now you will see them at the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T. We have many teams from across the U.S. and Europe that we just could not accommodate,” said Jim Birrell, managing partner of Medalist Sports and race director for the Tour de Georgia.

So Michael Ball, and his (Crack) Rock Racing Team don’t get a ride in Georgia … getting closer and closer to my predicted implosion every day.

No Tyler Hamilton, no Santiago Botero, and no Oscar Sevilla. Instead, these riders get to line up and race major races like the Los Angeles Circuit Race, against such well-known, top-level pros like Mark-Paul Gosselaar (of TV’s Saved By The Bell fame), as Tyler Hamilton did this past weekend.

Gosselaar finished 7th, by the way, which is not a knock on his ability to race a bicycle, but he’s certainly not on the level of guys coming out of Utah like T-Bird or Jeff Louder, much less Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, or any of the Euro-Pros.

Slipstream scores Giro invite

American continental professional team Slipstream-Chipotle has received an invitation to compete at this year’s Giro d’Italia, Slipstream team manager Jonathan Vaughters confirmed with VeloNews Saturday.

Vaughters got the news last week from RCS director Angelo Zomegnan, who is expected to announce the full list of teams invited to the Giro in coming days. In addition to the May 10-June 10 Giro, Vaughters said Slipstream would compete in other RCS events such as Milan-San Remo, held March 7, and Tirreno-Adriatico, held March 12-18.

Though the team has not yet been invited to race at the 2008 Tour de France, Vaughters said he would start many of his team’s Tour hopefuls at the Giro. Riders that have expressed interest in both grand tours include David Millar and Christian Vande Velde.