following a poor start to the season, cavendish found form at the 2010 volta a catalunya, finishing seventh in the opening time-trial and winning stage 2. his team withdrew cavendish from the tour of romandie after he made an offensive gesture after winning the second stage. missing the 2010 giro d'italia, cavendish instead chose to compete at the 2010 tour of california starting on 16 may 2010, where he won the first stage for only his third victory of the season. on 15 june cavendish crashed heavily whilst sprinting in the closing metres of the 4th stage of the tour of switzerland, appearing to veer off line and bring down heinrich haussler and several other riders, raising criticism from other teams regarding his riding style. cavendish entered the 2010 tour de france. during stage 1, cavendish crashed out of the final sprint, with just under 3 km remaining in the stage. overhead camera footage showed cavendish failing to negotiate a corner after entering too fast and turning too late. he then leaned his shoulder into a fellow rider as he travelled away from the apex. cavendish returned to form by winning the stage 5, stage 6, stage 11, stage 18 and stage 20, bringing his career total to 15 stage wins. he ended up second in the points classification, 11 points behind alessandro petacchi. cavendish's next race was the 2010 vuelta a españa, in which his team won the opening team time trial. cavendish crossed the line first and took the leader's jersey. he could only place second or third on the subsequent sprint stages, but returned to form later in the race winning stages 12, 13, 18 and the green jersey points classification.