CYCLING/ Vuelta a Espana:Mark Cavendish won the 12th stage today after his chief rivals misjudged their sprint finish to leave the Briton with an unchallenged run to the line.
The sprinters were always likely to prevail on the largely flat 172.5km ride from Andorra la Vella to Lleida, and Cavendish’s HTC-Columbia ensured it was their man who prevailed with a perfectly-timed move in the final kilometre.
The rest of the pack failed to respond to the HTC-Columbia attack, meaning Garmin-Transitions’ sprinter Tyler Farrar came home in a distant second place, while Cavendish’s leadout man Matthew Goss took third.
Nicolas Roche came home in the bunch sprint and was placed in 28th. The Irish rider remains in ninth position in the overall classification, two minutes and 30 seconds behind race leader Igor Anton
The Spanish Euskaltel-Euskadi rider enjoys a lead of 45 seconds over Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo).