Mark Cavendish blasts sprint rival in Tour de France

THE Tour de France turned nasty overnight with sprint favourite Mark Cavendish hitting out at rival Roman Feillou.

Mark Cavendish

THE Tour de France turned nasty overnight with sprint favourite Mark Cavendish hitting out at rival Roman Feillou.

As the American Tyler Farrar celebrated his maiden stage win at the Tour de France on American Independence Day, dedicating the victory to former Garmin Cervelo team-mate Wouter Weylandt who died in a race fall at the Giro, Cavendish took aim at the sprinting antics of Roman Feillu.

Cavendish believes the Vacansoleil rider's tactics cost him an chance of winning the stage into Redon.

The HTC-Highroad sprint ace also accused race commissaires of picking on him after docking him 10 points in the intermediate sprint after television footage showed the Manx Missile butting leaning his head on yellow jersey wearer and world champion Thor Hushovd's left shoulder.

Hushovd had points deducted as well.

“Seriously no idea why?” tweeted Cavendish.

“Saw other riders in final run-in on TV and believe decisions are personal.”

Robbie McEwen, the winner of 12 Tour de France stages, who missed making the RadioShack nine man squad, tweeted he agreed with Cavendish.

Cavendish may yet not heard the last of his tweet and could face possible further sanctions for his comments.

The sprint ace, who has had a slow start to this year's Tour, believes Feillu's riding tactics nearly brought him down.

“I thought I was going to crash, I thought I was coming down,” Cavendish said.

“It's a shame. I think it's going to take a very uneducated person to write me off this year. I've got great form, the team's got great form, it's just a bit of bad luck.”

Hushovd later laughed off the incident with Cavendish, telling reporters: “I just wanted to rub off some of my sunscreen (on Cavendish).”

The Norwegian went on to play a major role in getting Farrar to the line first as Garmin Cervelo made it back to back wins.

Of the Australians, Cadel Evans remains third overall, one second behind Hushovd.

“It was a nervous, dangerous stage with a fair bit of win in the final (sprint),” Evans said.

“It seems they (Tour organisers) use more and more narrow roads. It's great for (the) excitement, but puts the risk rating up a bit high.

“Fortunately, George (Hincapie) and Marcus (Burghardt) kept me in front most of the time.”

Hincapie and team-mate Manuel Quinziato were caught up in a crash inside the final 25kms of the 198km stage.

“I think we did well to take care of Cadel, switching on and off among each other throughout the race,” American Brent Bookwalter said.

Looking ahead to tonight's (AEST) fourth stage, a 172.5km up-and-down run from Lorient to Mur-de-Bretagne,  Evans says positioning (in the main bunch) and staying out of trouble will be key factors.

“Getting into a position (to contest) the final is always the best way to make time, which is a similar sort of tactic we used on the first stage,” Evans said.

Of the other Australians racing, Matt Goss (HTC-Highroad) remains the next best in contention, 18th place, just 10 seconds behind Hushovd.

Goss is also right in contention for the white jersey as the best young rider, one second behind current leader Geraint Thomas of Team Sky.

Tour veteran Stuart O'Grady from Leopard Trek is at 1min. 53secs, then comes Richie Porte (Saxo Bank-Sungard) at 2.11, Mark Renshaw (HTC-Highroad) at 2.35, and Simon Gerrans from Team Sky at 2.53.