Tour de France Stage 4, Fougères

29 JUNE 2021

Mark Cavendish emerges from the chaos of the final kilometres of stage 4 and from the wilderness years to take his first Tour sprint since 2016, from Nacer Bouhanni (in red) and Jasper Philipsen. The Manx sprinter had endured several challenging years, beset by poor form and Epstein Barr virus, and was only saved from forced retirement by a late transfer to Deceuninck-Quick Step at the end of 2020. Even a month before the Tour, he’d not looked like returning to the world’s biggest race, but with his team’s sprinter Sam Bennett sidelined with injury, a late slot came up..

On the run-in to Fougères, Lotto’s Brent Van Moer almost held off the bunch - with 6.5km to go, he still had a minute’s lead. But a concerted chase by Alpecin-Fenix, Trek-Segafredo, Groupama-FDJ and DQS brought him back. Cavendish followed Philipsen’s wheel as the pair overtook Van Moer in the final 150m, and then jumped past for an emotional victory and the unlikeliest of comebacks.