Mark Cavendish compared himself with Wayne Rooney after ending more than two weeks of frustration to claim a sensational victory on Stage 18 of the Tour de France.

Cavendish has been forced to put his personal pursuit of glory on ice ever since Stage 2 in order to support team-mate Bradley Wiggins' pursuit of a first ever British race win.

But he made the most of a brilliant lead-out from Wiggins and the rest of his team-mates to claim the 22nd Tour stage win of his career.

Cavendish told ITV Sport's Ned Boulting: "I've been waiting to do that for nearly three weeks now. Physically it's been hard. I've had Bernie to look after me but we had the yellow jersey and second in the GC. I was full of pride to be part of that but I'm a sprinter. It's like putting Wayne Rooney in defence.

"Sean Yates (Team Sky's directeur sportif) said 'We're going to have a quiet day today and let any breakaway get away' and I put my hand up and said 'Please just give me a chance'. Bradley came over and said 'We're going to make a sprint today'.

"I'm so, so happy that the lads I've been riding with the last few weeks have really helped me out today."

 

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