I RODE LIKE A DUMMY
MARK CAVENDISH is running out of road to set a new record for Tour de France stage wins after being left holding the baby in another fast show.
Britain’s sprint legend cut a frustrated and angry figure as the latest chance to close in on Eddy Merckx’s milestone went begging.
It is now almost two years since Cavendish crossed the line first on Le Tour – and he is just three days short of the most barren run of his career in the race.
Before take-off in the Vendee last weekend, the Manx missile was quietly optimistic he could add to his 30 stage wins this week but admitted Merckx’s record of 34 “seems so close yet it is such a long distance away”.
And if he keeps going up dead ends, we can name the date when Cavendish, now 33, will catch Merckx: The twelfth of never.
After Quick-step’s Fernando Gaviria charged to his second win in four stages, Cavendish cradled six-week-old son Casper by the finish line.
He admitted: “I was blocked by my own lead-out man effectively but it’s my own fault – I shouldn’t have been there. Quick-step are hard to beat anyway – it’s another stage win for them and I’m left holding the baby.” Cavendish was not even in the mix when the first two stages unfolded as bunch sprints and his Team Dimension Data lead-out train was stopping at all stations.
This time, he sat up inside the last 100 yards, gesticulating angrily after brushing shoulders with Holland’s Dylan Groenewegen, but in reality Cavendish had already shot his bolt.
Defending champion Chris Froome and the big hitters in the general classification all rolled home safely.
But David Lappartient – president of world governing body UCI and mayor of Sarzeau, where the 121-mile run from La Baule finished – fanned his war of words with Sir Dave Brailsford.
The Team Sky principal had accused Lappartient of bias and presiding over Froome’s salbutamol case with a “local French mayor’s mentality”.
But Lappartient’s return of serve was inflammatory more than conciliatory.
He said: “By insulting me like that, he is insulting 35,000 mayors in France and the French in general. He does not understand that it takes mayors taking stages of the Tour de France for such a great event to take place.”