Brilliant photo here, by photographer S. Jacob found on PezCycling News, of the moment that HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish went down during the final sprint in yesterday’s Tour de Suisse Stage 4.
The British sprinter, who is only belatedly hitting form, seemed to stray into Heinrich Haussler of the Cervélo Test Team’s path, touching wheels and taking a whole bunch of the sprint favourites to the floor. Haussler has pulled out of the Tour de Suisse, but Cav escaped with only road rash and bruising, though he went for precautionary X-rays. Tom Boonen, though falling on his gammy leg, seems OK, too, and he, Ciolek and Cav will all line up today.
Lampre-Farnese Vini’s Alessandro Pettachi won the stage and HTC’s Tony Martin still leads the GC.
Andre Griepel, meanwhile, seems destined to wait by the telephone for his Tour de France call-up a little longer.
