MARK Cavendish proves he is still on top, winning his 35th Tour de France stage and taking the record for the most stage wins by a single rider.
The 39-year-old from the Isle of Man has now gone one better than the great Belgian rider Eddy Merckx, who he previously shared the record with.
Stage five of the Tour de France would see the peloton cover 177.4km, from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas.
Following yesterday’s mountain test, the race returned to the flat and everything seemed set for a bunch sprint.
As the stage got underway, it quickly became clear that the sprinter’s teams would not be willing to allow a large breakaway escape and just two riders managed to slip off the front.
These French countrymen, Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ) and Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), worked well together to establish a lead of almost five minutes at most.
With the green jersey up for grabs, the peloton began to ramp up its pace leading into the only intermediate sprint point of the day which came with 54km remaining.
Behind the two breakaway riders, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was third at the intermediate sprint and took the main share of points available to the peloton.
He narrowly edged Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) on the line, showing the Tipperary man’s intentions to try for another green jersey after winning the classification in 2020.
As the race approached the finish, rain began to fall. With riders fighting for a safe position at the front of the bunch, the pace increased which caused the breakaway to be quickly reeled back in.
The rain subsided and a wide run-in led to a fast finish. However, two 90 degree bends with three kilometres to go meant position remained crucial for those looking to win.
Weaving his way through the bunch, Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) proved he can still contend with the best and finished a full bike length ahead of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), while Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) came home in third.
With a large crash happening behind him, Bennett finished safely in 15th.
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) retains the yellow jersey ahead of stage six, which is expected to end with another sprint.
Speaking after the stage, Cavendish said that he never lost belief despite struggling at the start of the race:
“It normally takes me days to get into it. But I know how it works
“I’ve done 15 Tour de Frances now. I don’t like to have bad days but I know it’s just in your head and you get through it
“But things have to still go your way.”
Fighting back tears, Cavendish thanked his team for backing him to chase the record for another year:
“Astana have put a big gamble on me this year, to make sure I got a good year at the Tour de France.
“They know you have to go all in.
“We worked out exactly what we wanted to do, how we’d build the team, what we’ve done with my equipment. Every little detail has been put towards specifically today.
“But now, we’ve done it. We did exactly what we needed to do.”
