Mark Cavendish won the 12th stage of the Giro D'Italia today.
Stage Twelve was down the Adriatic coast past Ancona from Castelfiardo to Ravenna and being pan flat, this was the final stage of the race for the sprinters to shine.
The stage was seen as a duel between Mark Cavendish and Allesandro Petacchi but from the start, Michal Golas (Vacansoleil), Stef Clement (Rabobank), Davide Ricci Bitti (Farnese Vini) and Miguel Minguez Ayala (Euskatel).got away.
On a glorious day and one which saw plenty of people heading back to the beach after the race passed, the four escapees kept a steady gap of two and a half minutes between them and a peleton which contained race leader Alberto Contador.
That gap had halved with 25kms to go as the race speed picked up to 45 km/h.
Ten kilometres later and with the riders using all the road close to the Marina Da Ravenna, the breakaway quartet were in view of the peleton and finally caught.
Team Sky's Peter Kennaught went to the front but back came HTC Highroad with the mission of delivering Cavendish (pictured below), who is expected to be withdrawing from the race, to the line.
With 1.8km there was a massive crash caused by an Androni rider which stopped most of the peleton but Cavendish and Petacchi were in the leading group.
Mark Renshaw hit top speed and Cavendish went, just getting over the line first in a time of 4hr, 17 mins, 25 seconds. David Appollonio was second with Petacchi third.
Alberto Contador keeps his leaders Pink Jersey.
Speaking after the race to his HTC Highroad Press Office, Cavendish said: Winning today was really important, my team-mates had worked all day with no help at all from any other squad and I wanted to thank them for it by winning.
"They did an incredible job. Then I started up my sprint with 200 meters to go and I managed to get it."
"I'm really pleased, the Giro is a very important race for me, there aren't any more sprint stages in this year's race and I really wanted to get another win here. "We had seen before the stage, in the route-book, that it might be difficult, we knew we had to be close to the front, and we got through it ok."
After the race and with no more sprint stages left, Cavendish withdrew along with the vast majority of sprinters.
Stage 13 tomorrow is from Spilimbergo - Grossglockner and is 167kms long.
Picture copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM