SUPER CAV EDDING FOR THE RECORD
Manx man equals legend Merckx’s Tour feat with his 34th stage success
FIRST among equals, Mark Cavendish crowned the greatest comeback since flared trousers and gasped: “I can’t believe it – I’m so dead after that finale”.
After a lung-bursting surge to the line in Carcassonne, Cavendish – the greatest sprinter in the race’s 118-year history – matched Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 Tour de France stage wins.
Some 14 years after his first Le Tour ride, the Manx Missile was not expected to make history by winning four stages this year.
He would not have been riding at all if Deceuninckquickstep’s first-choice sprinter
Sam Bennett had not been ruled out by a knee injury.
Written off, Cavendish, 36, was without a team last winter until his former Quickstep team offered him a surprise encore.
Exhausted after the punishing 136.7-mile transfer from Nimes, Cav was too shattered to take in the enormity of his achievement, saying: “I can’t even think about it.
“I’m so dead after 220km in that heat, that wind and that finale.
I went deep, I went so deep there, but yet again the boys were incredible. A lot of the day it didn’t feel like it was going to happen – I was on the limit.”
Asked what it meant to be bracketed with the great Merckx, he said: “It’s just another win on the Tour de France. It’s like my first one.
“And I don’t think I can ever be compared to Eddy Merckx, the greatest-ever road cyclist of all time.
“But it’s what I dreamed of as a kid and I’ve worked so hard for it. We’ve seen such a growth, especially in the UK, of cycling since I started racing at the Tour de France.
“If any of my wins can inspire kids to ride the Tour de France or the Tour de France
Femmes from next year when they grow up, that will mean the most to me.”
If he can survive a gruelling week in the Pyrenees, Cavendish may get two chances to claim the record outright – on stage 19 in Libourne next Friday and on the Champs Elysees, where he has won four times already, on the ride into Paris 48 hours later.
Merckx, who won the last of his 34 stages back in 1975, probably thought his record was safe. But if Cav goes beyond Belgium’s five-times winner of Le Tour, it is hard to envisage anyone ever winning more stages on cycling’s ultimate endurance test.