Mark Cavendish won the tenth stage of the 94th Giro D'Italia this afternoon.
The tenth stage was 156km long and took the coastal road from Termoli to Teramo and started with Omega Pharma Lotto's Brit Adam Blythe who withdrew due to a knee injury whilst Australians Graham Brown and Robbie McEwen (pictured below) were outside the time limit on stage nine.
The flatness of the stage meant it was one for the sprinters and Fumiyuki Beppu (RadioShack), Pierre Cazaux (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Yuriy Krivtsov (AG2R La Mondiale), shot off early doors.
They got six minutes and twenty seconds clear but the peleton which was led by HTC Highroad who were riding to get Mark Cavendish a win chased them down and had knocked two minutes off their lead with a third of the stage gone.
The trio stayed clear until there was only 11.5kms left when they were caught and it was gruppo compacto once more.
Russell Downing and Peter Kennaught worked for Team Sky as the race went under the 5km banner. Then with just over 2.5kms to go. Team Garmin's David Millar saw his opportunity and went for broke.
The Scot was caught with half a kilometre to go. Mark Cavendish (pictured below) moved up to fourth and went round the outside of Points leader Allesandro Petacchi to take the victory in a time of 4hrs and 49 seconds ahead of Ventoso and Petacchi.
The win was Cavendish's 65th since 2007 and his third this year.
Speaking to Eurosport after the race, Cavendish said: "I thought I'd win on the first day but I was even more hungry to win today. Our guys rode at the front all day and I was good after the rest day. "I knew if I was behind Petacchi I could surprise him and I picked the right moment and went for it."
Speaking to the HTC Highroad Press office, Cavendish who lives in Italy said: "Winning in Italy is massively important for me. "It's where I took my first ever Grand Tour stage win and I was disappointed not to win in Parma, because this is one of my favorite races, really close to my heart."
"I suffered badly in the mountain stages, but I wanted to get through in order to keep winning here. "We haven't got our most experienced sprint team here, but it is still the same as its always been in terms of heart and commitment. They all gave it one hundred percent and I couldn't ask more from them. "We controlled the break perfectly and when we came into the finish they were all there. "I got on Petacchi's wheel, he started accelerating with 250 metres to go, I went with 150 metres to go and then I came past him for the win."
Alberto Contador still leads the Maglia Rosa by 59 seconds.
Stage 11 is 142km from Tortoreto Lido to Castelfidardo.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM