Written by: Justin Davis (AFP)

MONTPELLIER, France, July 17, 2011 – Winning the green jersey and the final stage to the Champs-Elysees in Paris are the only things still missing from Mark Cavendish’s Tour de France wish list.

But if the Isle of Man sprinter keeps his cool in the world’s biggest and most mentally draining bike race, he should achieve both those goals in a week’s time.

After a mainly flat but wind-buffeted ride over 193 km from Limoux to Montpellier Sunday Cavendish claimed his fourth stage win this year to take his career tally to an unrivaled 19 on stage 15.

Yet it wasn’t all plain sailing.

A similar stage in 2009 had left half the yellow jersey favorites, including eventual champion Alberto Contador, losing 41secs to rivals when Cavendish’s team drove the pace so hard as to cause splits in the peloton.

Although that scenario wasn’t repeated, Cavendish said it had been almost as stressful as the previous day’s 14th stage in the Pyrenees.

“Days like this, you expect to be a transitional stage, but there’s as much fatigue in a day like this as there was yesterday,” he said.

“It was always going to be difficult, especially with what happened in 2009 when we broke the peloton off.

“We’re fighting with Cadel (Evans), with the Schlecks (Andy and Frank), with (Ivan) Basso – it’s pretty stressful, but that shows how important it is for those guys to keep fighting every day.

“It wasn’t really difficult because of the wind, it’s just the fact you’re fighting with everybody the whole day. The thing that gets you most about this Tour is just the mental fatigue which drains you.”

Before his win Cavendish had revved up his engine at the intermediate sprint.

After a five-man breakaway had taken the maximum available points two minutes earlier Cavendish beat Jose Joaquin Rojas to sixth place to pocket 10 points.

At the finish he then beat American sprinter Tyler Farrar to add 45 more points to take his tally to 319, a 37-point lead on Spaniard Rojas.

While fearful of Rojas, the man HTC-Highroad fear the most is Omega-Pharma’s Philippe Gilbert, the Belgian champion who has been a thorn in Cavendish’s side since winning the opening stage.

Just as HTC wound up the pace in the finale to drop rivals and prepare Cavendish’s sprint, Gilbert went on the attack.

“I think he was going for the stage win and to get points,” added Cavendish.

“It was a difficult finish. It looks easy on television, but it’s anything but. It’s the type of finish he could do that on.”

Gilbert had collected eight points from the intermediate sprint but after being reeled in he took none at the finish. Although still third in the competition he is 71 points behind Cavendish.

After Monday’s rest day, however, the Belgian is likely to relaunch his bid on the hilly 16th stage from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Gap.

“He’s quite far back but he wants this jersey,” added Cavendish, calling the Belgian an “incredibly talented bike rider”.

“But I’ll just plugging away. Hopefully I can stand on the podium in Paris with this (green jersey) on my shoulders.”