Cagey Cavendish closing in on Merckx’s mark but keeps mum
This time, there’s no avoiding the subject. He might not like it, he might bite the head off any reporter who dares mention it, but we need to talk about Eddy Merckx.
Mark Cavendish’s second stage win of this Tour de France in Chateauroux yesterday — the same city where he won his first 13 years ago — was another incredible moment in a race which is throwing up its fair share of them. Only four other riders here — Alejandro Valverde, Philippe Gilbert, Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali — were even racing back in 2008. But the truth is, it did not have nearly the same shock factor as his first into Fougeres on Wednesday.
Then, it was all about redemption, ending five years of hurt and sticking two fingers up to his doubters. On Wednesday, the tears flowed, the emotion was off the charts. Cavendish was a fizzing ball of anger, energy, delight and vindication.
This felt different. Almost as if it was expected. Cavendish had already shown he was the fastest sprinter here. He has the best leadout. Why would he not win?
But that may not be fair on Cavendish, who, lest we forget, was scrabbling around for a team eight months ago and had not won a race in three years. As he is at constant pains to point out, winning just one Tour stage is enough to make the career of a rider. Why should he always be asked about the next one? But that is Cavendish’s curse. No one else has such expectations placed on them because no one else delivers like he does.
The fact is, he won his 32nd stage yesterday in dominant fashion. After Greg Van Avermaet (Ag2r Citroen) and Roger Kluge (Lotto-Soudal) were swept up with 2.5km remaining — Deceuninck-QuickStep having the Lion’s share of the work to catch them — Cavendish’s all-star leadout went to work. World champion Julian Alaphilippe, committing again, then Davide Ballerini, then Michael Morkov. Only Alpecin-Fenix took them on, yellow jersey Mathieu van der Poel dropping off Jasper Philipsen and Tim Merlier on the right of the road, while Morkov led out Cavendish on the left.
The Manx rider was calm enough to wait when Morkov swung over.
“He left a space open for me on the left, but I just needed a second longer,” Cavendish said, explaining his decision to jump onto the back of Philipsen, who launched his sprint first. The 36-year-old duly powered past his rival in the final metres. He even had the presence of mind to reenact his celebration back in 2008, placing both hands on his helmet in disbelief. Asked later if that was premeditated, Cavendish smiled and said nothing.
The question, now, is how many more stage wins he might manage at this Tour.
This win took him just two behind Merckx’s all-time record of 34. A quick glance at the remaining stage profiles will tell you that there are at least four which could end in a bunch sprint. Stage 12 into Nimes, where Cavendish has won before, stage 13 into Carcassonne, stage 19 into Libourne and the final stage into Paris, where he won four times in a row between 2009 and 2012.
Naturally, he glared when the Merckx question was put to him by a French TV reporter.
“Please don’t ask me that question,” he said. “I just won my 50th stage in a grand tour, isn’t that enough?”
His reticence to engage with the Merckx record is understandable. Not only does he not want to jinx it, he has to get over the Alps to earn the right to sprint in Nimes and Carcassonne, and then the Pyrenees if he wants to get to Libourne and Paris, and Cavendish has done virtually no climbing this year, not having planned to go to the Tour.
“I’ve just got to look at each day as it comes,” he said.
Others, though, are starting to size up the elephant in the room. “Mark knows he can beat these guys,” said ex-pro Sean Kelly. “Now he has the confidence.”