Cav’s double delight after win drought

MARK Cavendish doubled up with his second victory in as many days at the Tour of Turkey yesterday.

Having ended a three-year wait for victory on Monday, Cavendish again had his hands in the air on the 212-kilometre stage three from Beysehir as the Deceuninck-quickstep rider retained the overall race lead.

With his belief renewed by events 24 hours earlier, the 35-year-old was the first to light up his sprint 200 metres from the line in Alanya, and comfortably had the pace to hold off Alpecin-fenix’s Jasper Philipsen.

Monday’s win was his first since the Dubai Tour in February 2018, but Tuesday’s was the first time Cavendish had enjoyed back-to-back

Mark Cavendish successes since the 2015 Tour of California.

“It’s very nice,” Cavendish said. “(My belief) is still coming back. I had more confidence today to know that I could do it.

“I don’t think it gives me as much confidence as I used to have, but it definitely gives me confidence in myself more than any kind of swagger.”

Following his fourth place on Sunday’s opening stage, bonus seconds thrust Cavendish into the early race lead and he has now extended his advantage with Philipsen eight seconds back.

Cavendish will hope to hold the leader’s jersey for another day with today’s stage from Alanya to Kemer relatively flat, before the road goes up tomorrow.

The Manxman said his goal now was to try to help his team-mates – including Fabio Jakobsen, back after eight months out following his horror crash at the Tour of Poland last year – to get their own victories.