Mark Cavendish – “We'll keep fighting...”

“I said yesterday that it could have been four or five wins by now actually but I’ve got no regrets. The first [sprint] stage when Tyler [Farrar] won was one for me and yesterday when [André] Greipel beat me – I could have won there too – and I spoke to André today and I said, ‘Technically that was one of the soundest sprints I’ve seen by a sprinter from this generation’. How he rode it was perfect. So I really can’t be disappointed with yesterday.
“Yesterday I didn’t kick. I kind of rolled before kicking, so I made sure I kicked today. You can see the way that Mark [Renshaw] led me out, I went with 250 meters to go and I got the acceleration and I was able to hold it.
“I got the perfect lead-out and we proved that we’re the strongest team for a sprint in the peloton. We rode all day. There was a group of six guys away and we put two on the front and kept them at three minutes. There was some help from other teams at the end but we have two in the top 10 on GC – Tony Martin and Peter Velits – and they were riding for me at the end to pull the break back.
“It’s an incredible group of guys I’ve got around me.
“I said yesterday that I was disappointed because they rode all day and I couldn’t win but I had to make amends today and I finished off the job that they set me up for.
“I hope I get to keep the green jersey this year. We’ve been fighting for it all along; all the intermediate sprints we’ve gone for, the finishes we’ve gone for... and 15 points is a narrow margin and we’ll keep fighting.
“Lars Bak is a machine. You’ve seen how he ride. I love the guy and I pushed really hard for him to be in this Tour de France team because I knew we could count on him. He’ll ride in sun, in rain and he’ll ride all day. On top of it all, he’s a great guy to be at the dinner table with.”