Mark Cavendish has said that he is super happy with his Etixx Quick Step after he surged to a second successive victory in the Tour Of Tukey.
Cavendish beat Sacha Modolo to the line on the second stage to retain the torquoise jersey and told his team's website: At a corner with about 5 kilometers to go my wheel went from me and I thought to myself 'that's not good' as I lost my balance.
"The wheel was spongy. It wasn't totally flat but it was a slow leaking puncture. I thought about stopping to get a new wheel, but we were already on our third guy of the train. If I stopped, we were one man short for Mark Renshaw.
"So I thought I'd give it a crack. I went easy for the final corners. I had confidence in my teammates. If they kept me in the front on the corners I'd be OK, and they did just that. They were really strong today and I was super impressed. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck rode on the front for the second straight day. These Belgian guys are super strong. Iljo Keisse and Nikolas Maes, they did a great job establishing the leadout. Then Fabio Sabatini went, and did a massive turn for more than a kilometer. He got us into the last corner, and then Tom Boonen went. Riders came from behind, but Mark Renshaw was able to find space. He had to go long and then I had to go long after him. But I'm super happy with what the team did today.
"I have to give a lot of credit to Mark Renshaw because he also punctured today with less than 20 kilometers to go. So he did a great job today considering the energy he used going into the leadout.
"As for me, I feel like I am about the same condition as I was this time last year.
After a month without racing you can be sure you've got good form, but you can never know exactly where you're at. I knew yesterday before I even won that I was feeling good. I took an easy week after Gent-Wevelgem and then reset. Fabio Sabatini and I did some training in the last few weeks. So we were ready for this race. The whole team has shown we're focused and ready to win at Tour of Turkey."
Source: DSG
