World Road Race Champion and Manxman Mark Cavendish has taken his first victory of 2012 for Team Sky. The Manx Missile won stage three of a wind swept race that saw echolons and splits occuring just 30km into the stage. A breakaway of four riders were soon swallowed up by the fasting moving front group. Garmin Barrcuda looked like they had things untill control coming to the finish but it was Cavendish who timed his move perfectly to beat Boonen to the line. Cav said "It’s incredible to win [with the rainbow jersey]. I said I wanted to make the jersey proud. You never really get the season going until you get that first win under your belt. So now it’s there I can hopefully get on a roll now and we can win some things."

Photo from Team Sky website here. Well done Cav ! We look forward to reporting on many more victories this season.