Mark Cavendish outpowered the opposition in Salamanca to claim his third victory and Team HTC-Columbia''s fifth stage win of the 2010 Vuelta a Espana earlier today when he won stage 18.

Team Saxo Bank's Juan Jose Haedo finished second in the bunch sprint concluding the stage from Valladolid to Salamanca with Portugal's Manuel Antonio Cardoso (Team Footon) third.

"I always say this: it's me that crosses the line, but there are eight guys behind me who support me from the very beginning," Cavendish commented after the finish.

Cavendish added "We held the break at two minutes, then [teammate] Kanstantsin Sivtsov came up as well and the gap started to come down.  I was panicking a bit with two kilometres to go, but [teammate] Peter Velits, even though he's fighting for the GC, brought me all the way up to the front again."

"Then [teammate] Matt Goss did more than he should have leading me out. It was a difficult finish, very technical, but I went away with 180 metres to go. If I had the strength to get this win, it was all thanks to the work the team did," Cavendish concluded.

Vincenzo Nibali (Team Liquigas) kept the overall 2010 Vuelta a Espana lead.

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