2010 Le Tour de France: Stage 18, Friday, July 23rd: STAGE WINNER!

Salies-de-Béarn to Bordeaux 198 km (123 miles)
Today's stage winner was Mark Cavendish!
Congratulations to him!

Going into today's flat stage it was said that Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) would be hard to beat in the final 200 meters. A true sprint to the finish and as the race concluded, Mark Cavendish was indeed the winner with the fastest time of all. Not known as the fastest lead-out man like one, *Mark Renshaw, who was Cavendish's team-mate on Team HTC-Columbia earlier this Tour, is known for; however, Cavendish did manage to find his way in the end to take this stage. Julian Dean, another rider known as a fast, lead-out man, was second and Petacchi came in third but takes the green jersey away from Hushovd.
Cavendish has already racked up three stages this Tour with no problem picking up a fourth after this stage 18 and most likely a 5th in Paris on Sunday. He now has 14 overall stage wins during his Tour career.
Today's 18th stage began in the shadows of the Pyrenees and finished up in the epicenter of the wine world in Bordeaux with all riders out of contention except for two, Schleck and Contador.

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(Note: Mark Renshaw, widely regarded as the world's best lead-out man, was expelled from the Tour after stage 11 on Thursday, July 15th, in Bourg-les-Valence. Renshaw helped Cavendish to victory for his 3rd stage win in this year's Tour as he kept head-butting his rival lead-out man Julian Dean three times going into the finish. Renshaw's antics and DQ may have receded and cost Cavendish all hopes of winning the points classification's green jersey).