Greig Leach

I've talk about the superstitions in the theatre community about rehearsals. Today may turn out to be the reverse. With the relocation of the finish line another 300 meters further up the Champs Elysees, Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quick Step), who has won four times before on the Champs Elysees, and his team need to rehearse their sprint leadout to the new point. They got it perfect in the intermediate sprint with Cav taking the best of the rest from the peloton. There were still three guys up the road. His leadout man took second keeping Michael Matthews (BikeExchange) from gaining any points in the race for the Maillot Vert. Now, Cavendish will have to not score any points at all for Matthews to have any chance of taking the Maillot Vert off of the Manx Missle. He hasn't bested him yet, so I have no reason to suspect that it will happen in four more laps.