Cavendish earns Tour de France immortality with 35th stage win

Mark Cavendish was determined – perhaps destined – to break the record for Tour de France stage wins.

Last year was supposed to be his 14th and final Tour, but the dream of ending his career with the absolute record motivated him to delay his retirement and return once again.

Already regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time, the Manx Missile has now claimed the prize he was desperately seeking with his 35th win in cycling’s premier race. in holy Vulbas Wednesday – his 165th career win.

He will go down in the history of the race after overtaking Eddy Merckx and becoming the greatest stage winner in the history of the race.

In a post on social media, Belgian Merckx, who won the Tour five times between 1969 and 1974, wrote: “Congratulations Mark for this historic performance. A good lad who has beaten my Tour record.”

Cavendish jointly held the record for most Tour stage wins with Merckx since winning his 34th stage in 2021.

At 39, surpassing a milestone once considered almost beyond the reach of any modern cyclist, let alone a sprinter, is an achievement that speaks to the longevity and breadth of his career success.

“The Tour de France is bigger than cycling. I love it, I love racing the Tour,” Cavendish said.

“Today we have thought about every last detail.”

Cavendish’s love affair with the Tour began on 7 July 2008 in Chateauroux, the first of his four stage wins in that edition of the race.

Arguably his breakthrough moment came on the track in 2005, with a world title in Madison, after rising to prominence at the newly formed British Cycling Academy under Rod Ellingworth.

But his ability to read the finish, position himself and produce devastating accelerations have made him formidable in La Grande Boucle.

Cavendish as a “fine wine” that improves with age

Since tying Belgian legend Merckx in 2021, Cavendish has had to deal with a Robbery at knifepoint and the uncertainty of finding a new team at 37 years old.

Add to that the bitter disappointment of abandoning the Tour with a broken collarbone 12 months ago, while injuries and depression contributed to him failing to win a single time in 2019 and 2020.

And here he is, in his 15th Tour, displaying the confidence of the rider who was virtually unbeatable between 2008 and 2012, when he claimed 23 stage wins, including four on the Champs-Élysées.

“Without the Tour de France, cycling doesn’t exist,” Cavendish said in his 2023 Netflix documentary, Mark Cavendish: Never Enough.

With 35 wins from 215 completed stages, he also has a success rate of almost one in six.

It is a remarkable feat for a rider who has been described as sharp-tongued and fiery-tempered by former teammates, and as a “pain in the ass” by the outspoken Vasilis Anastopoulos, who worked with Cavendish at Quick Step and is now head of performance at the Manx’s current team, Astana Qazaqstan.

Cavendish has credited the Greek coach for helping rejuvenate his career during their time together at Belgian team Quick Step and for playing a pivotal role in his 2021 and 2022 success at both the Tour and Giro d’Italia.

Former Cavendish boss Mark Renshaw is now Astana’s sporting director.

“He’s amazing. He’s like a fine wine that just keeps getting better,” Renshaw said of the sprinter.

“The team had a lot of confidence in him and they did throughout the year. We have changed the team to take care of him and he has been very committed.”

“I don’t know how many days he has spent with his family, but this year there haven’t been many and that’s the kind of commitment that is needed.”

“It was about much more than modern cycling”

It was remarkable to see the large number of riders waiting to embrace Cavendish at the conclusion of Wednesday’s 177.4km route from Saint Jean de Maurienne to Saint Vulbas.

But as he battled the heat on a brutal opening stage with more than 3,600m of climbing, there were doubts about whether this historic victory would be possible.

An emotional Anastopoulos said: “We spent three months in Greece from April 2, believing every day. On the first day (of the Tour) he suffered a heat stroke so we thought we had done something wrong, but he did it again.

“In the end he was very strong. He was the old Cavendish.”

Race leader Tadej Pogacar said at the finish line: “Unbelievable. Mark’s 35th win. I used to watch him on TV and we loved him. He came to me and said, ‘Don’t break my record’, but I don’t think he can do it.”

Speaking on ITV 4, Cavendish’s former Team Sky teammate Peter Kennaugh also paid an emotional tribute to his childhood friend.

“You can never lose faith in Mark Cavendish. I know this will mean the world to Mark because he is so much more than just a sprinter,” Kennaugh said.

“What he has achieved will not only go down in the history of cycling, but also in the history of sport. It’s incredible.”

“He thrives on people telling him he can’t do it and he’s had that feeling throughout his career up until now.

“It was about so much more than modern cycling and what we see every day. It was about passion, dedication and his love for the sport and his willingness to never give up.”