Dangerous for GC riders to mix with sprinters: Cavendish (Reuters)

By Julien Pretot ANGERS, France (Reuters) – The latest trend for overall favorites’ teams to take part in bunch sprints hoping to gain a few seconds on rivals are making stage finales dangerous, Mark Cavendish said on Monday. Big guns, who usually fight it out in the mountains and in time trials, normally drop back near the end of the flat stages to avoid mixing with the sprinters, but a new tactic has arisen in recent years. Riding in the front has become an obsession for the likes of Britain’s Chris Froome and Spaniard Alberto Contador, even though sprinters’ teams usually take the lead, but the roads are not wide enough to accommodate them.