World News Cavendish claims solo Tour stage record with 35th win Blog

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Mark Cavendish has cemented his record as cycling’s greatest sprinter with his record-breaking 35th stage win in the Tour de France.

With his victory in the fifth stage of this year’s Tour in Saint-Vulbas in southern France, he was finally able to distance himself from the Belgian legend Eddy Merckx.

Three years after equalling the rider widely acknowledged as the greatest rider of all time with his 34th victory in the 2021 Tour, Cavendish completed his team Astana-Qazaqstan’s “Project 35”.

The team dominated the field for much of the final 30 kilometres of the 177-kilometre stage from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, but in the finale Cavendish hung on to his rivals before he could pull away.

The 39-year-old Briton left his lead rider Michael Morkov behind, sat behind Jasper Philipsen and then behind Fabio Jakobsen before spotting space on the left side of the road.

He broke away and secured safety ahead of the much younger Philipsen, who finished second, and Alexander Kristoff, who secured the other podium place.

After the Frenchmen Clement Russo and Matteo Vercher caught up with the only breakaway group of the day 35 km from the finish, the peloton crossed the finish line together.

This left the overall standings unchanged and Tadej Pogacar remained in the lead after narrowly avoiding a traffic island 60 kilometers from the finish.

Remco Evenepoel remains second, 45 seconds behind, and Jonas Vingegaard is in third place, a further five seconds behind.

The leading Australians are Jai Hindley in 18th place, four minutes and 40 seconds behind, and Jack Haig in 25th place with 5:41.

Cavendish’s victory comes just four days after the Manxman – as the people of the Isle of Man off the west coast of England are called – struggled mightily in the heat of a tough first stage.

He vomited on the bike and had to be cared for by his team in order to finish the race within the allotted time.

Cavendish’s four stage wins in 2021 are considered one of the sport’s greatest comeback stories. They were his first Tour victories in five years, following a period marked by illness and injury that contributed to a diagnosis of depression.

Despite being excluded from the 2022 Tour, he signed a last-minute contract with Astana-Qazaqstan ahead of the 2023 season, but crashed on stage eight and broke his collarbone.

Cavendish’s wife Peta and the children waited at the team bus and celebrated exuberantly.

“To be honest, I’m tired. It’s my 15th Tour de France and it’s a big challenge to get there every year,” said Cavendish.

“I’m getting old and have to get in shape every year and that’s hard. But everyone joined in, I got a lot of support. My family came yesterday. Perfect timing.”

With PA

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