ISSOUDUN, France, July 14, 2009 (AFP) – American Tyler Farrar was gracious in defeat after being out sprinted again by Britain’s Mark Cavendish on the Tour de France 10th stage on Tuesday.

Garmin rider Farrar finished runner-up to Cavendish when the Isle of Man rider took the first of his three stage victories in Brignoles on stage two.

And the American said the technical finish was trickier than he thought after Cavendish again proved too strong for Norwegian rival Thor Hushovd.

Farrar, who appeared to slow down at one of the turns leading to the finish, told AFP: “I did hesitate a little bit in one of the turns.

“We can’t see the finish before. I looked in the (road) book but the corners were all a little more technical than I thought they would be.

“Apart from that everything went really good. The fastest guy won today, and I came third,” added Farrar, who like Cavendish had a special word of praise for his New Zealand lead-out man Julian Dean.

“The team were perfect. It was a very technical last kilometer, but you saw the team taking care of me and Julian (Dean) is amazing right now. He’s really going fast. Everything’s going perfect.”

Hushovd finished second to claim 30 points which allowed him to keep the points competition’s green jersey with a total of 147, a six-point cushion over Cavendish who has 141.

Farrar is fifth on 80 points.

Cavendish’s lead-out man Mark Renshaw revealed they had made sure of making no mistakes in the finale, by sending one of their team members up to scout and send back a report via telephone.

“We had some guys sitting at the finish for us so we knew we could take most corners full gas, besides one or two,” said Renshaw.