eighteen and twenty, bringing his career total to fifteen tour stage wins. He ended up second in the points classification, eleven points behind Petacchi. Cavendish's next race was the Vuelta a España. His team won the team time trial with Cavendish finishing first, taking the leader's jersey. He could place only second or third in the subsequent sprint stages but returned to form later in the race winning stage twelve, thirteen, eighteen and the points classification. 2011 Cavendish had a slow start to 2011 failing to win a race until late February when he won stage six of the Tour of Oman. His second victory of the season came in the Scheldeprijs—his third in this event following his wins in 2007 and 2008—bringing him to the record tied with Piet Oellibrandt. He failed to finish at the Paris–Roubaix. He came second in the second stage of the Giro d'Italia in contentious circumstances (Cavendish gestured at winner Petacchi for appearing to move across his path in the final sprint) to take the pink jersey into stage three. Cavendish got his first grand tour victory of the year by winning stage ten of the Giro, denying claims that he had illegally held on to his team car when climbing Mount Etna on stage nine. He won his second Giro victory of 2011 on stage twelve before leaving the race. On 11 June, it was announced that Cavendish was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours. He won stage five, seven, eleven, fifteen and twenty-one of the Tour de France — bringing his total to twenty career Tour de France stage wins. He also became the first person to win the final stage three years in succession. Cavendish was docked twenty points for finishing outside the time limit after stage nine and again after eighteen. He went on to win the points classification—the first British cyclist to do so. Over the following weeks, Cavendish took part in the post-Tour criteriums. He won the Stiphout Criterium in The Netherlands, beating brothers Andy and Fränk Schleck of to the line. He then won the Profcriterium Wolvertem-Meise, followed by the Wateringse Wielerdag. In August, Cavendish's team HTC–Highroad announced they would fold at the end of the season, fuelling speculation that Cavendish would move to Team Sky. The following week, racing for team Great Britain, he won the