Mark Cavendish has said that he is super happy with his Etixx Quick Step after he surged to a second successive victory in the Tour Of Turkey.
Cavendish beat Sacha Modolo to the line on the second stage to retain the torquoise jersey and told his team's website: At a corner with about 5 kilometers to go my wheel went from me and I thought to myself 'that's not good' as I lost my balance.
"The wheel was spongy. It wasn't totally flat but it was a slow leaking puncture. I thought about stopping to get a new wheel, but we were already on our third guy of the train. If I stopped, we were one man short for Mark Renshaw.
"So I thought I'd give it a crack. I went easy for the final corners. I had confidence in my teammates. If they kept me in the front on the corners I'd be OK, and they did just that. They were really strong today and I was super impressed. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck rode on the front for the second straight day. These Belgian guys are super strong. Iljo Keisse and Nikolas Maes, they did a great job establishing the leadout. Then Fabio Sabatini went, and did a massive turn for more than a kilometer. He got us into the last corner, and then Tom Boonen went. Riders came from behind, but Mark Renshaw was able to find space. He had to go long and then I had to go long after him. But I'm super happy with what the team did today.
"I have to give a lot of credit to Mark Renshaw because he also punctured today with less than 20 kilometers to go. So he did a great job today considering the energy he used going into the leadout.
"As for me, I feel like I am about the same condition as I was this time last year.
After a month without racing you can be sure you've got good form, but you can never know exactly where you're at. I knew yesterday before I even won that I was feeling good. I took an easy week after Gent-Wevelgem and then reset. Fabio Sabatini and I did some training in the last few weeks. So we were ready for this race. The whole team has shown we're focused and ready to win at Tour of Turkey."