Yellow fever
Cavendish sprints to famous victory at Tour to claim iconic jersey for first time in career
Rider pays tribute to fallen soldiers at D-Day beach
They said his legs had gone. They said his motivation was waning. They said he had no chance in a straight-up bunch sprint against his nemesis Marcel Kittel; that he would have to rely on his nous, on crosswinds breaking the race up in the final stages. Mark Cavendish said different.
The Manxman added another entry to his claim to be the greatest cyclist these Isles have ever produced as he shot to a stunning victory on the opening stage of the 103rd Tour de France yesterday, claiming in the process the iconic yellow jersey for the first time in his career.
The Dimension Data rider left Kittel [Etixx-QuickStep] trailing in his wake in the sprint finish at Utah Beach as the Tour remembered the D-Day landings of 1944. Tinkoff ’s world champion Peter Sagan was third.
The victory, the 27th Tour stage win of his glittering career, means Cavendish has now completed a clean sweep at grand tours. When he sets off from Saint-Lô for stage two today wearing the famous maillot jaune, he will have raced in the leader’s jersey at all three of cycling’s major tours: in Italy, Spain and France. Cavendish has also won the points classification at each of those races.
Sir Bradley Wiggins is normally a shoo-in at No 1 on the ‘pound-forpound’ lists that are compiled whenever someone notches up another big gong; his four Olympic titles allied to overall victory at the 2012 Tour de France making a compelling case. But the manner in which Cavendish dispatched his great rival Kittel yesterday, after three years in which he has had his once vice-like grip on the sprinting world relentlessly questioned, was something remarkable to behold.
It may only be one stage. Kittel may storm back to claim every other sprint stage this year. We are yet to discover whether this was a one-off or whether the increased track time he has put in preparing for next month’s Olympics have made a decisive difference. But after this Norman conquest, he can rightfully stick two fingers up at anyone foolish enough to have doubted him. The Manx Missile is never more dangerous than when he is written off.
And what a place at which to do it; Utah Beach, the scene of so much death and devastation in 1944. A patron of the Help for Heroes charity, Cavendish showed class off the bike as well as on it, putting his own sporting achievement in sharp perspective as he joined other riders in laying flowers at the war memorial.
“I’m really emotional,” he said. “It’s going to be a special day tomorrow and what better way to do it here on Utah Beach remembering the soldiers that died on D-Day and all the people that died for our freedom in the modern world.”
Clutching his children Delilah Grace and Frey in his arms – his stepson Finbar was also there – Cavendish added: “Delilah is pretty happy right now. She’s my harshest critic because she judges me on how many flowers I bring home. She was there the previous two times I had a chance to win yellow [in 2013 and 2014]. It feels really special.”
The Grand Depart to the 103rd Tour had taken place in the shadow of Le Mont-St-Michel, with the 198-strong peloton riding gently over to the famous island situated just off the Normandy coast and back again before Christian Prudhomme, the Tour’s director, dropped his flag to indicate that the race was on.
Almost immediately, a three-man break formed with Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), Leigh Howard (IAM Cycling) and Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18) getting away. They were chased down by Anthony Delaplace (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Alex Howes (CannondaleDrapac) to form a five-man breakaway. With 75km of the stage remaining, and the breakaway at less than a minute, crosswinds began to become a factor with the peloton becoming visibly tense as teams jostled for position at the front.
Alberto Contador [Tinkoff-Saxo], one of Chris Froome’s big general classification rivals, had a crash but managed to escape with no more than nasty road rash on his shoulder. Team Sky’s Luke Rowe was brought down in the same incident but also got up.
The peloton was slowed down by Trek’s Fabian Cancellara to allow the fallen riders to get back on.
Howes and Delaplace, meanwhile, forged on alone but were caught inside the last 10km as the bunch touched speeds of 60kph.
Despite some heavy crashes in the final 500 metres – Geraint Thomas was forced into the barriers to avoid going down – Cavendish kept himself out of trouble, sitting on the wheel of Sagan. And when he launched his sprint neither the Slovakian nor Kittel could respond.
Cavendish joins fellow Britons Tom Simpson (1962), Chris Boardman (1994, 1997 and 1998), Sean Yates (1994), David Millar (2000), Wiggins (2012) and Froome (2013 and 2015) in wearing the yellow jersey. He also now sits just one behind Bernard Hinault [28] in terms of Tour stage wins, with Eddy Merckx still out in front on 34.
“It’s phenomenal, it really is phenomenal,” he reflected. “There is no bigger icon in cycling than the yellow jersey and it will get the recognition for our sponsors and for the [African team’s] Qhubeka charity. I do this for my team and I do it to try and get 5000 kids on bikes. I’m so happy. I can’t believe it.”