Mark Cavendish plays it low-key as he sprints to California win

When Mark Cavendish celebrated his last victory by flashing his Vs and making an "up yours" gesture, it led to his team withdrawing him from the Tour de Romandie. Late last night, as he sprinted to stage one of the Tour of California, there was no repeat, just a straightforward arms‑in-the-air celebration of his third win of the season after yet another textbook lead-out by his HTC‑Columbia team. "If I'm delivered to the right place then I will cross the line first," Cavendish told Cyclingnews.com afterwards. "The most satisfying thing about winning is knowing I can deliver to my team-mates who did the hard work." Asked if he had been tempted to make another "special gesture", he replied: "I was going to celebrate three wins this year but I couldn't do it, so I just did a normal celebration." Another explanation for his uncomplicated salute was that Cavendish was pushed all the way by JJ Haedo after the Argentinian's team, Saxo Bank, attempted to muscle in on the HTC "train". Cavendish, however, had his A-team in front of him: Tony Martin, Bernhard Eisel and, finally, his lead-out man, Mark Renshaw. They brushed aside Saxo's Jens Voigt and Fabian Cancellara with ease, though Haedo's proximity to Cavendish in the final 200 metres suggested that the Manxman has yet to find his top gear. Cavendish admitted to doubts when his California-based team insisted he ride the eight-day American tour instead of the three-week Giro d'Italia, which for the past two seasons has been his launch pad to the Tour de France. But this victory, he said, meant "the pressure's off". Monday's ninth stage of the Giro was, meanwhile, won by another HTC‑Columbia sprinter, Matt Goss. In a roundabout way this also relieved pressure on Cavendish. Goss's job at the Giro was to have been lead-out man to André Greipel, with whom Cavendish has feuded this year over the German's claims to be the team's No1 sprinter. But with Greipel in such dismal form in Italy that his lead-out man has been unleashed, Cavendish's status as the team's No1 sprinter has been cemented. Alexandre Vinokourov retained the pink jersey of Giro leader.