Sir Mark Cavendish has won a record-breaking 35th career Tour de France stage win with victory on stage five in Saint-Vulbas.
Three years after matching Eddy Merckx on 34 during the 2021 Tour, Cavendish moved clear of the Belgian to stand alone in Tour history.
The 39-year-old came off the wheel of Fabio Jakobsen in the finale and had the power to hold off Jasper Philipsen.
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Cavendish’s Astana-Qazaqstan bossed the front of the peloton for much of the final 30km of the 177km stage from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne but in the finale the Manxman used his years of experience to surf the wheels before powering clear of his rivals.
He left behind his lead-out man Michael Morkov and moved behind Philipsen and then Jakobsen, before spying space on the left-hand side of the road and bursting clear.
“I’m in a little bit of disbelief,” Cavendish said. “I put a big gamble on this year to make sure we were here, at the Tour de France. It’s a big gamble for my boss [Astana Qazaqstan team manager Alexander Vinokourov] and the team to do. You have to go all-in. And we’ve done it.
“How we built the team, what we’ve done with equipment, every little detail has been put towards specifically today. We didn’t nail it as a team as we wanted to do. But the boys improvised and got me in the best position and I was able to win.”
How Cavendish bounced back to make history
Cavendish postponed his planned retirement after crashing out of last year’s Tour, with his Astana-Qazaqstan team going all-in on ‘Project 35’ ahead of this year’s race.
His victory comes just four days after Cavendish struggled mightily in the heat of a punishing opening stage out of Florence, vomiting on the bike in concerning scenes, and two days after he missed the opportunity to contest stage three after being caught behind a late crash in Turin.
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Cavendish’s four stage wins in 2021 counted as one of sport’s great comeback stories, his first victories at the Tour in five years after a period of time marked by illness and injury which contributed to a diagnosis of depression.
Even since those wins three years ago, Cavendish has endured more difficulty, only signing a last-minute deal with Astana-Qazaqstan ahead of the 2023 season after the collapse of another move, then seeing last year’s Tour end abruptly on stage eight.
Cavendish’s wife Peta and their children were waiting at the team bus and joined in exuberant celebrations.
His first Tour stage win came in 2008 on stage five, Cholet to Châteauroux and was quickly followed by three more wins in that year’s edition. Since then, Cavendish has continued to rack up wins over a total of 10 Tour de Frances.
Cavendish ‘one of our greatest sportsmen’
Great Britain Cycling Team Performance Director, Stephen Park CBE, said: “On behalf of British Cycling I would like to congratulate Sir Mark on a truly outstanding achievement.
“It goes without saying that Mark is one of the greatest British riders of all time, and to cap off his final season of racing with another victory at the sport’s biggest race is a fitting final chapter in a glittering career.
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“We have been proud to support Mark from his early days on the Great Britain Cycling Team academy to his final Tour de France, and this is an incredibly special day for the coaches, support staff, fellow riders and fans who have all played a role in his journey.
“Mark’s long and storied career, his passion for the sport and his tenacious pursuit for excellence make him a real inspiration for the next generation of bike riders looking to follow in his footsteps.
“He is one of our country’s truly great sportsmen and sporting personalities, and it has been a privilege to have watched him reign supreme for all these years.”