Cavendish's sprint train weakened with Hansen out

Mark Cavendish, Tour de France 2010 stage 1

Mark Cavendish will have a harder time securing stage wins in this year's Tour de France with the absence of HTC-Columbia team-mate Adam Hansen. Australia's Hansen abandoned after yesterday's stage one finish to Brussels due to a crash earlier in the day.

"It makes it more difficult for us because he was planned to be the guy to speed it up and line it out," said sports director, Rolf Aldag. "We will have to gamble because we can't line up like we did last year - one guy going after the next, leading to 200 metres and Mark winning."

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