Tour de France: 33 down, one more to go for sprint star Cavendish
BRITISH cyclist Mark Cavendish moved within one more win of equalling the great Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 Tour de France stage victories on Tuesday with his third triumph of this year’s edition.
Cavendish was given a superb lead-out by his Deceuninck-Quick-Step team in the final dash for the line after 190.7 kilometres from Albertville to Valence and narrowly edged out Belgian duo Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen.
“It was an old-school, runof-the-mill, like you read in the cycling magazines, textbook lead-out,” Cavendish was quoted by Britain’s PA agency.
“Just getting the lads on the front, pull as fast as they can so no one can come past you.
“I just had to finish it off. I’m grateful to all of them. I didn’t have to do anything just the last 150 metres. I’m thankful to everyone.” The former world champion Cavendish is turning into a star of the 108th Tour, alongside yellow jersey holder to reigning champion Tadej Pogacar, as he continues an astonishing comeback.
Cavendish, 36, had to cling on through a tough mountain stage on Sunday to avoid falling foul of the time limit and on Wednesday faces another gruelling day which includes two trips up the legendary Mont Ventoux.
But if he survives that there will soon be a further chance to not only match Merckx’s once eternal record of stage wins but even go beyond it and also claim a second green jersey sprint points triumph after 2011.
Cavendish’s performance is all the more remarkable as he seemed on the brink of retirement until securing a late contract with DeceuninckQuick-Step in December 2020 after a lengthy spell blighted by illness and injury.
In the general classification the mighty Slovenian Pogacar seems well set to retain his crown with his main rivals having already fallen away. He leads by just over 2 minutes from Australia’sBen O’Connor. Stage 10 results
1. Mark Cavendish (GB/ Deceunick-Quick-Step) 4hrs 14mins 07secs; 2. Wout van Aert (Bel/Jumbo-Visma) Same time; 3. Jasper Philipsen (Bel/ Alpecin-Fenix); 4. Nacer Bouhanni (Fra/Arkea-Samsic); 5. Michael Matthews (Aus/Team Bike-Exchange); 6. Michael
Morkov (Den/Deceuninck-QuickStep); 7. Andre Greipel (Ger/ Israel Start Up Nation); 8. Peter Sagan (Svk/Bora-Hansgrohe);
9. Anthony Turgis (Fra/Total Energies); 10. Cees Bol (Ned/ Team DSM)
General classification
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 38hrs 25mins 17secs; 2. Ben O’Connor (Aus/AG2R Citroen) +2mins 01secs; 3. Rigoberto Uran (Col/ EF Education Nippo) + 5mins 18secs; 4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo Visma) +5mins 32secs; 5. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/Ineos Grenadiers) +5mins 33secs; 6. Enric Mas (Spa/ Movistar) +5mins 47secs; 7. Wilco Kelderman (Ned/BoraHansgrohe) +5mins 58secs; 8. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz/Astana) +6mins 12secs; 9. Guillaume Martin (Fra/Cofidis) +7mins 02secs; 10. David Gaudu (Fra/ Groupama-FDJ) +7mins 22secs.