Cavendish and Serov spent much of the 169km stage working together in two-man break, until Cavendish was dropped
on the two final hills.
The tired Cavendish chased hard on the 10km downhill run in to the finish in Kendall, but there
was no way back for the Manxman who had to settle for second place with the peloton breathing down his neck.
Points
competition leader Romain Faillu (Agritubel) buried himself at the front of the peloton on the tricky uphill final 500m to
try and close the gap to green jersey rival Cavendish but fell short by just 20 metres. Third place, however, earned the Frenchman
enough points to defend the jersey for another day. T-Mobile's Frantisek Rabon placed fourth, after the Czech pushed hard
in the final metres in a bid to limit the points coming Faillu’s way.
Though green eluded him Cavendish collected
the jersey for Sprints Competition leader from fictional Kendall resident 'Postman Pat', after taking all the primes out on
the course. Cavendish: "It’s good to get this jersey but I won’t try to defend it tomorrow. I will concentrate
on winning back the green jersey and having a stab at the stage win."
The sight of sprint specialist Cavendish trying his luck in a two-man breakaway surprised many observers:
"It is my ambition to be a more all-round and complete rider," said the 22-year-old. "I want to show that I am not just a
sprinter."
T-Mobile sports director Allan Peiper was again delighted with the hunger and desire shown by his protégé:
"It sounded like a suicide-mission but Mark nearly pulled it off. I would have preferred if he had stayed in the pack and
we could have worked to bring back the break, but how can you tell a young kid not to race!"
Cavendish and Tinkoff's Serov emerged early in the race from a eight-man breakaway, and worked well together
to build up a five minute lead on the six-man chase group.
The Russo-Manx duo hit the first of two finishing climbs
still with four minutes on the chasers. As expected the Russian ditched Cavendish on the first climb, the Category Two Old
Town and had a one minute gap by the time Cavendish crested the second climb, the Category two Crosslands.
Serov went
on to celebrate Tinkoff's second stage win in Britain and take sweet revenge on Cavendish, who beat him into third place on
Sunday's Crystal Palace prologue.
Meanwhile, the six-man chasing group were scooped up by the fast-finishing peloton
in the final 500m as Cavendish held on for his third podium place this week.
There was no change to the overall race
GC after today's stage with Thursday's winner Adrian Palomares still leading David Blanco (Duja) (+'1) and Luke Roberts (CSC)
(+08').
The Tour of Britain concludes on Saturday with the Scottish stage over 155km from Dunfries to Glasgow. Some
rolling climbs will offer plenty of opportunities for attacks along the way, but it is likely that the sprinters teams will
bring it all back together for a bunch showdown on the banks of the River Clyde.
Cavendish: "I am very tired after
today’s effort so I won’t be any hurry to get into a break tomorrow. It will be a day for sitting back in the
bunch and waiting for a possible sprint."
