Tour de France sprinters back on their terrain in Bordeaux

Starved of mass finishes for a week, sprinters are expected to take centre stage again in the 198-km 18th stage from Salies de Bearn to Bordeaux on Friday.  

Apart from American Tyler Farrar, all the big sprinters in the peloton survived the mountains and are still in the race for a stage win and to score points in the green jersey competition.       

Briton Mark Cavendish will want his fourth win this Tour to equal his 2008 tally and bring his total number of stage victories to 14.

Bordeaux, the most visited town in the race outside of Paris with 79 finishes, has almost always been favourable to sprinters but the only Briton to win in France's wine capital is Barry Hoban in 1969 and 1975.                                           

Without his lead-out man Mark Renshaw, kicked out of the Tour for headbutting New Zealand's Julian Dean at the end of stage 11, Cavendish will have to rely on his own strengths.

Norway''s Thor Hushovd, the green jersey holder, and Italy's Alessandro Petacchi, who is four points behind him, will be the Briton''s main rivals.