Great Britain's Mark Cavendish, looking stronger with every stage, claimed his second individual stage of the 100th anniversary Giro D'Italia on Wednesday when he dismissed his fellow sprinters 200 metres outs to win the 214km stage from Torino to Arenzano.
Having gritted his teeth and got through some difficult mountain stages recently, Cavendish rode the perfect race emerging from behind this lead out man Mark Renshaw with some 200m remaining and going unhesitatingly for the line to defeat Tyler Farrar and Alesandro Petacchi.
Cavendish's form is so good that the Isle of Man rider might be tempted to continue all the way to to the finish in Rome next week although before the race started he indicated that he would probably withdraw after Friday's sprint stage in Firenze.
Although feeling superb at present Cavendish main focus this year is not only the Tour de France but competing seriously for the points jersey at the Tour and to accomplish that he probably needs to keep something in reserve.
On a sunny hot day, a minute of silence was observed before the start of the 11th stage in memory of 69-year-old motorbike rider Fabio Saccani who died in a crash on the way to the start of Tuesday's stage. Initially the action was fairly routine although Vladimir Isaichev did cause minor alarm in the bunch as he stretched the early break to an eight-minute lead before they started reeling in the Xacobeo Galicia rider.
Team Astana ramped up the pace on the ascent of the Passo del Turchino, the final categorised climb at 20 kilometres to go, as Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer controlled the pace on the climb and descent, stringing out the field in the process. The teams of the sprinters, however, returned to the head of the peloton for the flat, concluding 10 kilometres to the finish setting up the bunch sprint when all eyes automatically turn to Cavendish.
Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) retained the race lead, holding a 1:20 advantage over Denis Menchov (Rabobank), but all that could change dramatically on Thursday at the much anticipated 60.6km time-trial, a hill beast of a ride which will very quickly separate the wheat from the chaff.
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