Mark Cavendish (Columbia) blasted to his third stage win in the Tour on Thursday, a victory which confirms his overwhelming superiority in the race’s bunch sprints.
For Cavendish stage 12’s win at Narbonne was his tenth road win of the season, and Columbia’s 50th for their men’s team in 2008.

"It makes me very proud to be the first British rider to win three stages in a major Tour." Cavendish said afterwards.

"It’s nice that I won them in very different weather conditions, too, that makes it more special."

"That also shows just how good my team are at handling all sorts of sprints and all sorts of situations. I got dropped off on the perfect wheel."

"So far my total is one stage win out of every seven in the Tour - assuming I don’t win anything else!"

Referring to his crash on Monday’s stage, Cavendish said "I have had a few problems with injuries because of that, but that’s the Tour. Anything can happen. You’ve got to take the pleasure with the pain."

"I’m tired now, you can see that because I didn’t win by so much this time as I did the other two stages."

"I don’t know how far I’m going to go this time round. But I’ve got a long career ahead of me, and I’d like to come back some time to the Tour and fight for the green jersey."

"In any case for now I’m happy to keep going day by day and see how far I can get."

Discussing the exclusion of Riccardo Ricco from the race, Cavendish said "I’m here for the sporting side of the Tour, not the political side. I’m here to win. But I can see it’s a massive disappointment for the organisers, even if it proves the tests work and at least it’s another person caught."

Cadel Evans (Silence - Lotto) is in the lead by just one second after 12 stages and Evans is content with how the race is going. Unlike recent years when his squad would have collaborated to set up a sprint for Robbie McEwen, this time around he’s happy to let other squads chase down the breakaways.

Evans said: "It’s hard to stay up front in the peloton all the time but it’s important to do that because there’s the risk of being caught up in a crash. That’s really what I had to look out for today. There wasn’t any real threat of losing the jersey in a stage like this so I just wanted to be careful, do the minimal amount of work and stay safe."

Evans added : "It was windy today and that helped the peloton minimize its losses to the escape group and my team just looked out for me while other teams took the real responsibility for the chase. It makes sense for Quickstep, Milram and Columbia to set it up for a sprint because they’re the squads that have the most to gain: they want to win stages, we want to win the Tour."

Evans will donate his yellow jerseys: "Another day, another yellow jersey. I’m happy enough with that. All of the jerseys that I get a the Tour de France will be donated to charities; they’re very special to me but if I can help out some people who are less privileged than me then it’s the least I can do."

Evans said he has a personal opinion about Riccò but would not comment him as "it would get very unfriendly."

Evans did say: "What's most frustrating is that people are focussing on the negative subjects at the federations, UCI and Tour organisation." Evans continued: "They take the right decisions, but are being critized for it. That's unfair. The sport is doing its best and what happens? We are being nailed to the cross. What shall we do? Let everybody taking doping like they do with some other sports where they never test? Will we than receive compliments? I am satisfied that the cheaters are being caught. Our sport is being cleaned up and I can't say thav about a lot of other sports."

Kim Kirchen (Columbia) said he wasn't really surprised: "For me its no real surprise that Riccò has been caught. To me his performances seemed a bit untrustworthy."

Rabobank's Laurens ten Dam and Bram Tankink showed their horror about Riccò on behalf of the riders. Ten Dam: "I really cannot believe it, they are just a bunch of jerks that are focused solely on success and financial gain and ruin the sport with that." Tankink: "I am furious with this guy."

Rabobank's sports director Erik Breukink was astonished and also sympathized with the people around Riccò's team. "This must be terrible for that team's employees. He destroys so much. Not just a Tour that was nice so far, although I hope we can all quickly pick up where we left off." Breukink expects that the price will be high for Riccò. He is even thinking about the end of his career. "The penalty will be stiff. Yes, he is young, but it will be hard, if not impossible, to get over this one."

Virtually everyone in the Tour distanced themselves from Riccò. Laurens ten Dam: "This zero tolerance policy is obviously good for the clean riders. I hope it is over now, but should there be anyone else who is using doping then that has to be uncovered as well. The three who have been busted all hurt me during the Tour. If that happens naturally then it is sport and acceptable, but in this way it sucks. That said, it was unheard of how fast Riccò went; now we know how that was possible."

"It is a terrible shame, another set back for the sport. I do not understand… You risk everything, your entire life. You might even end up having caused the disappearance of a team, and a lot of people might end up losing their jobs. I saw crying mechanics and attendants. That was really bad." Bram Tankink was furious with the Italian and told that he slammed into him during Wednesday's descent. He did not feel bad about that anymore.

Erik Breukink also commented Oscar Freire's green jersey and the performance of captain Denis Menchov: "We do not win, but you have to look at the bright side. He [Oscar Freire, editor] holds the jersey even tighter now and Oscar is riding very well. This arrival did not suit him. A lot of wind from behind and completely flat. But there will be more opportunities later, I am sure of that." Meanwhile, Denis Menchov is doing fine. "He is staying calm and cool. We have to be careful, though, especially on Friday, because that is the stage that might have a nasty kick because of the wind."

Quickstep team manager Patrick Lefevere said in sportwereld.be about Riccò's positve test: "This is like robbing a bank although you know there are camera's everywhere and that there will be paint brushed on the bank notes if you steakl them. Or like drinking a bottle of whisky although you see an alcohol control right in front of you [while you are driving a car, editor]. I don't understand how riders can be so stupid. I think they used products of which they thought they were undetectable."

Before the start of stage 12 Milram manager Gerry van Gerwen told sportwereld.nl: "Imagine you win the race today." Van gerwen continued: "Your story will be next to all the doping shit tomorrow."

Van Gerwen asked who is behind all this. "How can somebody so stupid?"  Van Gerwen continued: "For me the question is, who is behind all this? There is no rider who discovers this stuff by himself. That doesn't exsist."

Van Gerwen said he wants that the people behind all this are punished hard."There are other people behind it on which we should concentrate. Ofcourse you have to keep on carrying out controls but we should look into the world behind this. From whom came the drug, from where? Who is going to find that out? These things are much more interesting than pointing at Riccò now," van Gerwen said.