Tour de France leader Bradley Wiggins admitted he was grateful to Sky team-mate Mark Cavendish for his help in securing the yellow jersey, even to the cost of the Manxman's green jersey charge.
"Mark's been fantastic this last two-and-a-half weeks," Wiggins said. "It's a shame [for Cavendish to lose the green jersey] but at the end of the day we've got an incredibly difficult task on our hands trying to win the yellow jersey as it is, and so far he's played a big part in that...he's been an absolute gentleman this week."
Wiggins accepted that Cavendish had every right to be disappointed at falling so far behind points leader Peter Sagan, but maintained that there were still opportunities for the Manx rider to shine.
"We're going to lay it down in Paris for him and try and get him the win there," Wiggins said. "And he's got the Olympic Road Race and he's been quite open about, that that's his main objective."
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