Back Page Betting: Outstanding Cavendish completes the seemingly impossible

Tour De France / Ralph Ellis / 10 July 2008 / Leave a Comment

But it's likely to be fifteen minutes of fame for the ace sprinter who will struggle with the gruelling climbs, says Ralph Ellis

It wasn't until I got a bike that I realised rivers can run uphill. Going for a pleasant ride alongside the riverbank seemed a perfectly good idea but turned out to be hard work. In fact everywhere seemed to be uphill.

So I can understand how Mark Cavendish will feel as the Tour de France enters the mountain stage today. Britain's 23-year-old rider has done the seemingly impossible this morning by putting cycling on the back pages of the tabloid papers. The Express has the most clever headline to go with a huge picture of him winning yesterday's stage in the sport's most gruelling race, renaming him Mark Caven-dash! The Mail also hails his 'Tour de Force'.

Sadly it's almost certainly just 15 minutes of fame for the rider from the Isle of Man - better known, as the Mirror points out, for TT riding rather than pedal pushing. Stage Six of the Tour goes into the mountains today and Cavendish is not likely to last the pace there. He may be an outstanding sprinter but won't handle the gruelling climbs, and admits that himself. "I hope I will make it to Paris, but maybe I won't be good enough in the mountains and won't finish within the time limits," he confesses to the Sun's Paul Jiggins.

There is still a good chance of him winning Saturday's stage into Toulouse, though, so keep an eye on the betting for that later this week. Incidentally last year's King of the Mountains Juan Mauricio Soler of Colombia had to retire yesterday after fracturing his right hand in Saturday's opening stage. That's left Cristophe Moreau favourite to win the coveted title for the climbing hard men at [4.2].

He'd have to win there - and survive the pace through the rest of the Tour - to have a chance of winning the green jersey and he's [21] in the betting for that. Thur Hushovd is favourite at [2.52] - he was the man Cavendish outsprinted in the last 300 metres to win yesterday. It was, according to Simon Yeend in the Daily Express, like watching a cheetah hunt down a baby gazelle.

Cadel Evans remains favourite at [2.22] to win the Tour overall, and especially as Spaniard Alejandro Valverde seems to be increasingly accident prone. He fell off twice yesterday, needing attention on the move from the Tour doctor, but seems to have escaped with road rash on his right arm and leg. To a racing cyclist that's a bit like losing an arm was to Monty Python's valiant knight, 'only a flesh wound'. But it will take a heroic effort for him to get back into the overall reckoning, making second favourite Valverde still a decent lay at [7.0].

Cavendish's day in the sun does rather hide the early success of Britain's only real contender David Millar, who is actually now third in the overall classification and just 12 seconds behind leader Stefan Schumacher. Millar is not much fancied in the mountains either, reflected in his price of [220.0] to be the Tour winner. But the success of both riders does give encouragement for the Olympics.

Five things you didn't know about Mark Cavendish

1. He got into cycling riding a BMX bike around his home on the Isle of Man

2. He now splits his time between homes in Manchester and Tuscany

3. His first attempt at the Tour de France last year ended in failure after crashes on both the first two days

4. Before turning pro he worked in a bank. He says: 'I'd rather do 300km in the pouring rain than go back to that'

5. His arms and legs are permanently tanned from riding - but he's fair skinned and suffers sunburn if any of the rest of his body gets exposed!