Stage 18
Cavendish's third
- Thursday 16 September 2010
- 155 km
- 999 m climbed
- Won by Mark Cavendish
The road
At the start
Nibali back in red, one flat day
The time trial rearranged everything behind the leader: Nibali has red again, Ezequiel Mosquera is second at 38 seconds, and Peter Velits — who came here as a domestique after missing the Tour with a broken collarbone — is third at 1:59, while Rodríguez has fallen from first to fifth. Today is 155 flat kilometres across the plateau to Salamanca, with only the wind to trouble the sprinters.
How it was won
- 11 km to go
The eight are absorbed
A break that went at two kilometres and never got past three minutes is caught with eleven to go, and Gilbert's solo attempt is shut down with five. Nothing here was ever in doubt.
- At the line
Cavendish's third
Goss again, 180 metres to go, a slightly uphill straight in Salamanca, and Cavendish again. Haedo is second, Cardoso third, and the green jersey is now effectively his all the way to Madrid.
The result
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Cavendish | Team HTC - Columbia | 3:27:11 |
| 2 | Juan José Haedo | Saxo Bank | +0:00 |
| 3 | Manuel Antonio Leal Cardoso | Footon-Servetto | +0:00 |
The route on real terrain, every moment pinned to the kilometre it happened on — and the GPX to ride it yourself.