Cavendish makes Tour de France history with 35th stage win

Saint-Vulbas (AFP): Mark Cavendish made Tour de France history on Wednesday winning a record 35th stage at the age of 39.

Briton Cavendish beat Eddy Merckx’s mark, which had stood since 1975, on the fifth stage of this year’s Tour near the Alps having equalled it in 2021.

“It’s my 15th Tour de France and it takes a lot to get here, getting in shape every year,” Cavendish said at the line.

“I’m surrounded by incredible people and I owe a lot to them” added Cavendish who made his Tour debut in 2008 before becoming world road race champion three years later.

As the peloton swept through the lush Rhone valley with vineyards and pretty villages skirting the river his Astana team hogged the front right of the peloton as light rain fell.

A long home straight in the tiny village of Saint-Vulbas helped them form a lead out train the ‘Manx Missile’ mastered as he powered across the finish line well ahead of Belgian Jasper Philipsen, last year’s sprint points green jersey winner.

Race leader and two-time former winner Tadej Pogacar almost hit a traffic island causing a wave of movement and a pile up of bikes and bodies behind him.

But the Slovenian preferred to focus on Cavendish after the race.

“I used to watch him on television and we loved him,” Pogacar said.

“Just back there I saw him and he said hey, don’t you go breaking my record,” he jokingly added.

Pogacar is 25-years-old and has 12 stage wins already.

He still leads the overall standings which he enjoyed with a full yellow kit while Belgian Remco Evenepoel remains second at 45sec with defending champion Jonas Vingegaard third at 50sec.

Biniam Girmay, who became the first black African to win a Tour stage in Turin on Sunday took the sprint points green jersey on Wednesday after coming ninth in Saint-Vulbas.

Cavendish took a moment to congratulate the Eritrean sprinter.

“Biniam set a record in Turin and now I’ve set one here,” he said.

“So much goes into this and even one stage can make your career,” he added.

In 2023 Cavendish left the Tour in an ambulance after a banal crash bamboozled his plans.

Two seasons previously when Cavendish equalled Merckx’s stage haul in Carcassonne, it was his fourth win on that edition racing for Quick Step after years in the wilderness suffering from Epstein Barr virus.

He missed out on a 35th stage on the Champs Elysees coming second and then missed the cut for the 2022 Tour as Quick Step picked Fabio Jakobsen 10 years his junior.

Cavendish joined Astana in 2023 before being persuaded to sign a one-year contract extension for this season having considered retiring.