Cavendish’s 150th win caps ‘an amazing week’
Mark Cavendish’s return to form continued yesterday with a fourth stage win in a week at the Tour of Turkey. It was the 150th victory of the veteran’s career.
Rising British talent Tom Pidcock, meanwhile, narrowly failed in his own bid to make the winners’ enclosure, losing out to Wout van Aert in a photo finish at the Amstel Gold classic in Holland.
Cavendish and Pidcock, who are separated by 15 years in age – Cavendish will be 36 next month while Pidcock is 21 – had both won races on the same day earlier in the week. This time only Cavendish (Deceuninck–quick-step) was able to finish the job, taking his fourth sprint victory in yesterday’s Turkey finale. He had gone into the race without a win in over three years.
“We had an amazing week… and taking my 150th pro victory as part of this incredible team is just the cherry on the cake,” he said.
Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) won the first race of his professional career on Wednesday in the Brabantse Pijl classic. And he was up against the same rival yesterday: Jumbo-visma’s Van Aert. It looked as if the young Briton might have edged the win again yesterday. After Pidcock and Van Aert had broken away, along with Germany’s Max Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe), Pidcock surged past Van Aert in the closing metres. However, after a 15-minute delay while the organisers reviewed the footage, the Belgian was declared the winner by just 0.004 seconds.
There was success for Britain’s track riders at an open meeting in Belgium as they build towards the Olympics. Jason and Laura Kenny won the sprint and the scratch race respectively, while Katy Marchant won the women’s keirin.