Mark Cavendish won the Scheldeprijs in Belgium today
The 200km race comprised of a number of laps around the Belgium town and was always a race for the sprinters.
Cavendish's HTC team did plenty of work to get their man to the front before there was a crash with less than a kilometre to go which took out Tyler Farrar, Heinrich Haussler and others who ended up in a barrier which was started by Wouter Weylandts of Sky.
Cavendish avoided the crash and got to the finish line first to add to his wins here in 2007 and 2008
Katusha's Denis Galimzyanov was second with FDJ's Yauheni Hutarovich third, Veranda's Willems- Accent's Stefan Van Dijk in fourth and Radioschack's Robbie McEwen in fifth.
"The team did a perfect job, chasing down the break and then getting me to the front as they always do," a delighted Cavendish said afterwards."[Team-mate] Leigh Howard worked very hard in the last few kilometers, then I came past him and went for the win.
"I'm racing a lot this season, and I've had some bad luck, so it's good I can get the wins in, too.""My next race will be Paris-Roubaix and then I'll build up for the Tour de France, with the Tour of Italy and the Tour de Suisse before then as well."
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Alexander Vinokourov won the third stage of Basque Tour.
Today's stage was 180km long and from Villatuerta via Zuia to Murgia. There were a number of breaks but on a sunny day, it was Astana's Alexander Vinokourov who led going into the final four kilomtres.
Race leader Andreas Klodden was in the chasing pack but the Khazack rider was twelve seconds clear as he went under the flam rouge. Vinokourov kept going and won the race in a time of 4hr 20 mins and 38 seconds.
Oscar Freire was secon with Martens third. Jaoquim Rodriquez is now the yellow jersey holder taking it thanks to a higher placing today after he tied on time with Andreas Klodden.
Picture copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM