Pure delight: Joaquin Rodriguez celebrates his victory on the 12th stageAs his disgraced team-mate Mark Renshaw took a train home from the Tour de France yesterday and Stage 12 finished on an airfield with an ominous attack by Alberto Contador, Mark Cavendish trailed in with the rest of the stragglers in the final group that is affectionately known as the 'bus'.
There was still no disguising the poisonous reality of Cavendish's position in this year's race, however, with his HTC-Columbia team manager Rolf Aldag insisting that the Briton is being victimised because of his success.
If today's stage between Rodez and Revel ends in a sprint, Cavendish will be without the shield of his leadout man due to Renshaw's expulsion from the Tour for head-butting rival sprinter Julian Dean on Thursday.
Aldag believes that is part of a systematic attempt to erode the advantages that Cavendish's peerless burst of finishing speed gives him. There was no appeal possible to reinstate Renshaw, who has left his team behind to go back to his Monaco home.
Aldag said: 'The race goes on for 10 more days. Cav is still the fastest sprinter and we want to show that. He still has a chance to win more stages this year.
'Mark gets punished so many times and now they took away his leadout guy. It looks like everybody can do everything to him but he cannot defend himself.
On the climb: Andy Schleck wearing the yellow jersey during the 12th stage'What will be next? Somebody can run into his handlebar and not even get a warning but if he fights back, he might be out of the race. The officials are marking him out.'
In a strange irony, Garmin's Tyler Farrar, whom Renshaw almost squeezed into the barrier on Thursday, quit the race yesterday still suffering with the wrist he fractured in a crash on the road to Spa 12 days ago.
Meanwhile, Contador clawed back 10 seconds in the overall standings from yellow jersey wearer Andy Schleck with a devastating break on the brutally steep final climb up to the Mende airfield to finish second behind stage winner Joaquin Rodriguez.
Schleck leads the Spaniard by 31 seconds, but with four days of climbing in the Pyrenees to start tomorrow, he will fear that Contador has been marking time until this point.
Victim of his own success: Mark Cavendishsource: dailymail
