Defiant Cavendish claims record-breaking 35th stage win and acquires Tour de France immortality
In the quaint French town of Saint-Vulbas, with speeds approaching 70kph, Astana Qazaqstan rider Mark Cavendish outwitted and outpowered the peloton of the world’s best riders, charging to an emphatic and record-breaking stage win.
With this victory, Mark is now the only rider in the history of the Tour de France to stand on the stage winner’s podium 35 times! It is truly a remarkable sporting achievement, the likes of which may never be repeated.
“I’m a little bit in disbelief”, said Mark. “Astana put a big gamble on this year to make sure we’re good at the Tour de France. It was a big gamble trying to come in and win at least one stage.” he continued.
A gamble it most certainly was, as top-level professional sprinters usually have a career span of three to five years. What’s more, physiologically, sprinters are at their best in their early and mid 20’s, so an incredible achievement for the 39-year-old, who has been at the very top and winning the hardest bike races in the world for 16 years.
“Everybody has put a lot into this,” he said. “When you’ve got five children and your wife’s bringing them up and making sure they live a normal life while dad’s away, it’s pretty special, you know? They’ve been supporting me the whole time.”
Last year, when a bunch crash and resulting broken collarbone took him out of what was to be his final Tour de France, it seemed the record or any attempt at it, was simply not to be. Retirement loomed. Then, the dice rolled and to the dismay of many a pundit, the gamble to assemble a team around Mark with the sole intention of helping him win a record-breaking 35th stage, started. Many months later, after meticulous preparation and immense personal sacrifice including barely seeing his family for a year, he is now undoubtedly one of the all-time greatest bike racers of professional cycling.
After the finish, Mark reflected on the fight to the line. “We didn’t nail it as a team like we wanted to do,” he explained. “But the boys improvised and got me there in the best position, and I shot on to whatever train was going.”
It was a ‘classic Cavendish’ win. Mark’s team rallied around him all day and coming into the final kilometers they followed the plan: hug the left-hand side of the road, go full-gas and drag race against the other sprinters whilst Mark ‘sits in’, shielded from the wind. In the final kilometer the utter chaos of a Tour de France sprint stage finish, completely disrupted the team’s plan forcing Mark to freelance and rely solely on his race-craft and uncanny intuition on bunch positioning, to stay in contention. Surfing the wheels, bumping shoulders, hips and handlebars with other riders to hold position, he stayed out of the headwind for as long as possible. Finally, with 200 meters to go, he unleashed a nuclear-like sprint with an initial kick so powerful it created an immediate opening behind him. Head down and sprinting for immortality as it were, he took the win by a bike length.
It’s an incredible achievement. Chapeau Cav.
