Mark Cavendish became the most prolific stage winner in the history of the Tour de France, taking his 35th victory with a typically instinctive victory in a chaotic sprint finish in Saint-Vulbas.
It may not have been the Champs-Élysées, but when the moment came on the Avenue des Bergeries, in a suburban town in south-eastern France better known for its boulodromes than for its sprint finishes, the 39-year-old from the Isle of Man kept his date with destiny.
Cavendish, who struggled through the Tour’s opening stage when he was seen being ill on the bike, somehow recovered to take an exuberant victory, a year after he had quit his planned final Tour after breaking his collarbone.
Cavendish comebacks have become legendary, but this was perhaps the greatest triumph over adversity of all, given how hard he had to battle to get through Saturday’s opening stage, from Florence to Rimini.
Once again, as the Tour exited the mountains and headed towards the flatter roads of the Rhone valley, expectations built around his bid to overhaul Eddy Merckx’s 34 stage wins. He was caught out by the crash on stage three into Turin but this time the stars aligned for Cavendish, with both the peloton and the weather playing ball.
With 24km to go and the roads drying out after an earlier downpour, Cavendish and his Astana team stubbornly hugged the right-hand side of the road and maintained the steady pace that had characterised most of an uneventful stage.
With 5km to go, things got messy as the Lotto Dstny team took over the pacemaking. Suddenly Cavendish had a fight on his hands to regain a good position. But as he has shown in the past, he sprints as successfully using guile, nous and experience, as he does relying on his team. Fittingly, for his record-breaking win, this was a classic example of those instincts.
Among his many achievements, Cavendish has also won two green Tour de France points jerseys, a Rio 2016 Olympic silver omnium medal and the 2011 road world championship rainbow jersey. The 39-year-old will be hoping for more before retiring from the sport at the end of the season, something he confirmed would be the case during last month’s Giro d’Italia.
Merckx’s record had stood since 1975, when the Belgian won a split stage time-trial in Auch to make it 34 stage wins at the Tour. Cavendish – knighted in the king’s birthday honours last month – matched Merckx’s record with victory in Carcassonne three years ago.
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