Columbia TGV carries Cavendish to his destination

VITTEL, France (Reuters) - Mark Cavendish says he owes his stage wins on the Tour de France to the Columbia TGV, the eight team mates working to help him succeed.

"It's absolutely unbelievable that these guys accept to work for me. But that's what makes the team effort so special," said the Isle of Man rider, who has already won four stages in this year's Tour.

Nicknamed after France's high-speed train, the Columbia TGV takes shape in the last 10 kilometres of the Tour stages, with each of the eight riders having a designated part to play.

German Bert Grabsch, the time trial world champion, and Austrian Bernhard Eisel seize the peloton's reins until they raise the pace to 50 kph.

Then Belgian Maxime Monfort, Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen and Australian Michael Rogers take the baton to lift the speed to 60 kph.

In the last kilometre, German Tony Martin, American George Hincapie and finally Australian Mark Renshaw move to the front, with Cavendish close behind, to try to place him in the best position for the final sprint.

"You've seen how efficient the setup is," Monfort told journalists at the start of the 12th stage in Tonnerre on Thursday. "(Former Tour rider) Erik Zabel checks the last two kilometres and tells us what to expect and we go."

Team manager Bob Stapleton said: "When you have Kim and Rogers and the white jersey (Martin) in the lead, that says a lot about the team. We have the whole team on the line out there to win the stage. The other teams must do something like that if they want to beat Mark."

Monfort, who is more of a climber, said it was easy to spend energy helping Cavendish as the Briton was very popular with his team mates.