BEAST MODE
Cav still has a mountain to climb to make history
MARK CAVENDISH will have to tame the Beast of Provence today – twice – to stay on course for rewriting Tour de France history.
‘The Manx Missile’ made his 33rd career stage win on Le Tour – one short of Yellow
Jersey legend Eddy Merckx’s all-time record – look like shelling peas.
And as Cavendish rode into
Valence in triumph, he admitted he didn’t even need to hit the gas until the last 150 metres because his Deceuninckquickstep team unfurled an “old-school, textbook” lead-out.
But now comes the hard part. Stage 11 features two ascents of Mount Ventoux, the unforgiving lunar landscape where tragic British rider Tommy Simpson died 54 years ago.
It’s also where Chris Froome was forced to run up in 2016 after a crash on the overcrowded slopes snapped his frame in half.
So keep the champagne on ice a bit longer – Cavendish will have to beat the time limit on a gruelling stage to make the cut.
But he held off Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen to claim his third stage win in eight days like clockwork after the 118-mile transfer from Albertville.
Cavendish, leading the race for the sprinters’ Green Jersey, said: “It was an old-school, textbook lead-out. We got the lads on the front and got them to go as fast as possible to make sure no one could come past.
“We knew this finish, I didn’t make it the last time we came here in 2015, I got dropped, but we studied it and we knew if we took that last corner wide, we could keep the speed up.
“I’m humbled again. I’ve got the Tour of Flanders champion Kasper Asgren, Michael Morkov – who is going for the Olympics – and world champion Julian Alaphilippe leaving everything on the road for me.
“I didn’t really do anything until the last 150 metres because of my team. I don’t go for the Green Jersey – I go for stage wins.
“If I get the Green Jersey, great. I understand Michael Matthews and Sonny Colbrelli doing that to get points at the intermediate sprint.
“But it feels like they burn their matches and they didn’t have many team-mates at the end.” Cavendish finished 2020 without a team and was on the brink of quitting after four years of cruel luck with injuries and illness.
But he added: “The love and support that I have felt from all over the world has been incredible.
“That really makes it worthwhile, that people can be inspired by some sort of comeback, can get hope that when you think things are over, you can continue to fight and work to make it back.”