Tour de France 2012 - Stage 11

Mark finished, once again, in the Grupetto, at the end of the toughest day of the Tour thus far, one in which Team Sky strenghtened their hold on the yellow jersey with Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome now heading a british 1-2 in the GC. It was also the day when Cadel Evans chances of repeating his 2011 victory evaporated - he was broken not only by Team Sky but also Vincenzo Nibali, who is now in third place, leaving Evans trailing in fouth place overall...

For the record, Cav finished the stage in 154/167 33:35 down on Pierre Rolland. In the GC, Cav is now 153/167. More importantly, the green jersey is looking a bit unlikely this year - Cav (fourth place) trails current leader Peter Sagan by 103 points. Stage 12 is unlikely to bring much joy for Cav, although Stage 13 is a sprinters' stage...

This picture inadvertently sums up Cav's current position within Team Sky, given their (correct) support of Wiggins, and also Cav's olympic dreams...