Team Columbia, the American team at the forefront of the anti-doping movement in cycling, has its first stage win at the Tour de France.

Mark Cavendish, propelled by the lead-out of Gerald Ciolek, outsprinted Thor Hushovd to the finishing line Wednesday to win the 232-kilometer stage from Cholet to Châteauroux. It’s the first TdF stage win for both Cavendish and Columbia.

In pulling back the breakaway group of Nicolas Vogondy (Agritubel), Lilian Jégou (Française des Jeux) and  Florent Brard (Cofidis) in the final metres, Columbia looked like the Big Blue Train of the old U.S. Postal team of Lance Armstrong. Columbia riders were lined up one after another to not only protect Cavendish from the wind and reel in the breakaway but also to set such a high pace as to discourage anyone else from breaking away from the field.

And no wonder the Columbia’s Big Blue Train looked like the old Postal group: There was Big George Hincapie hammering away at the front! Earlier Hincapie had been back at the team car with a flat tire and had to make a big ride to reconnect with the peloton and make his way to the front with the rest of his team.

It’s been a great tour thus far for Columbia and American cohort Garmin-Chipotle. Columbia’s Kim Kirchen was in the green sprinter’s jersey for three days and is tied for second overall with Garmin-Chipotle’s David Millar. They are 12 seconds behind race leader Stefan Schumacher of Gerolsteiner.

In addition, Garmin-Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde, and Columbia’s Hincapie and Thomas Lovkvist rank sixth, seventh and eighth — 37 seconds, 41 seconds and 47 seconds in arrears.

“We’ve got such a strong team here and we’re consistently showing that,” letour.com quoted Cavendish as saying. “We had to come away with a stage win sooner or later and after the other day when we missed out on catching the escape, I wasn’t going to let them down. A lot of British fans think that cycling is only the Olympics and the Tour de France and they don’t get the chance to appreciate how much I’ve done in other races so at least I got to show them that I am the fastest guy in the world.

“It was really close it the end. There was a time when I thought we were going to catch the escape way too early and I had a chat with Thor and I said, ‘Maybe we’re going a bit too quickly.’ He told me, ‘No, they’re playing with us, they’re going to accelerate again.’

“It just goes to show the class of Thor and the experience that he has. We had Gerolsteiner, Credit Agricole and my Columbia team all going full gas just to bring the break down. We only just got them on the line. It just goes to show that anything can happen.

“I think the green jersey is a bit out of my reach. I didn’t come here with the aim of taking that; I just wanted to win stages. We’ve come so close so far - we’ve had a few top fives already - and our team had to stand on the top of the podium eventually and today we did it.”

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