Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THREESY DOES IT
Cav’s third Turkish win on spin
MARK CAVENDISH can dare to dream of a Tour de France encore after completing a hat-trick of sprint triumphs in Turkey.
After three years without a single victory on the road due to illness, unverifiable form and jumping ship like a ferry commuter, the Manx missile pulled off his third stage win in as many days and said: “It’s irrelevant how many in a row it is – it’s just nice to win again.”
Elbows out in a chaotic finish marred by a huge pile-up just behind the leading contenders, Cavendish powered past Dutch rival Jasper Philipsen in the last 60 yards. And at 35, he is back to making bunch sprints look routine – like the supreme finisher who has won 30 stages on Le Tour since 2008.
On the 114.3-mile fourth stage on the Tour of Turkey from Alanya to Kemer, Cavendish delivered the 800th victory in the history of the Deceuninckquickstep team.
It was handsome payback for the career lifeline they offered him last winter when he was contemplating retirement, and three stages in a row is the Manxman’s best run since he won four on the bounce in Qatar eight years ago – during his first spell with Quickstep.
Although some of the Tour de France’s top sprinters are not racing in Turkey, Cavendish’s return to form increases the prospect of him enjoying a curtain call in the peloton at the Grand Depart in Brest on June 26. And if Belgian legend Eddy Merckx’s all-time record of 34 seems likely to remain out of reach, it is no longer so fanciful to speculate that Cavendish could close the gap.
With mountainous terrain around the corner, there is no chance of Cavendish making it four in a row in Turkey, and he would expect to lose the leader’s jersey on the road to Elmali. He is also refusing to entertain questions about his victories this week in terms of where they could lead in his race programme for the rest of the season.
But they are moments which looked beyond him when Team Dimension Data dropped him from their 2019 squad for Le Tour, and when he missed the cut again with Bahrainmclaren last year.
Cavendish is content simply to savour the aura of being a winner again, saying: “It’s nice that the team believes in me.”
And he refused to compare his current form with 2014, when he won four stages in the same race.
He shrugged: “I’ve not got a clue because I never had time off then. I won in Alanya back in those days and I won here, too, but in all honesty I wouldn’t know.
“These are my first wins back so it’s hard to say about any form.”