The Tour de France focus switched back to cycling on Saturday when Briton Mark Cavendish’s win in the rain-swept eighth stage overshadowed Manuel Beltran’s positive drugs test the previous day. Cavendish, who also captured the fifth stage on Wednesday for Team Columbia, won the 172.5-kms ride from Figeac to Toulouse, beating team mate Gerald Ciolek of Germany in a mass sprint. France’s Jimmy Casper took third place for Agritubel. Lead intactThe result underlined Team Columbia’s domination on the Tour with Luxembourg’s Kim Kirchen retaining the overall leader’s yellow jersey in an unchanged top 10 and Swede Thomas Lovkvist still wearing the white jersey for the best young rider. “It was really fast and I had a bad place in the peloton,” said Cavendish. “I had to go quite early so I gathered speed and went on until the line. It’s a sensational finish especially as Gerald took second place. We now are the best team on this Tour.” On Friday, the Tour suffered its first doping episode, with Liquigas rider Beltran of Spain testing positive for the blood-boosting erythropoietin (EPO). A former domestique of seven-times winner Lance Armstrong, Beltran was kicked out of the race and will be fired by the Italian outfit if his B-sample returns positive. However, the Tour caravan pressed on as normal on Saturday morning, just as Beltran was at the airport on his way back home. Riccardo Ricco, who won the sixth stage in Super-Besse, was caught up in a crash with 51 kms to go. A rider who is not that popular in the peloton, the Italian had to dig deep to get back into the main pack with the help of three aides. Ricco called the medical car a few kms further on but managed to cross the line with the main bunch.
