The profile of the fifth stage of this 12 months’s Tour de France was clearly tailored for a mass end. After the difficult climb to the Galibier, the peloton actually rested immediately, and it was clear from the beginning that the sprinters have been going to battle it out.
Cavendish did it!
Mark Cavendish thus had the second try this 12 months to interrupt away from the legendary cannibal Eddy Merckx. Within the third stage, it turned out infamously for him, as he did not even make it to the ultimate dash.
Nonetheless, immediately’s stage was fully underneath the management of his workforce Astana and already about 30 km earlier than the end line, they have been main the peloton and making ready their chief for the ultimate end. And Cavendish actually burned the pond for everybody on the end line. Though he stumbled barely, he began the dash first and nobody might overtake him.
Together with his thirty fifth stage victory on the outdated girl, he wrote himself indelibly into the historical past of the Tour. Till now, he shared the file with Merckx. It is his first stage win on the outdated girl in three years. And no matter this 12 months’s tour seems for this rider. It has already been fulfilled.
He entered historical past and after the season he can dangle his bike on a nail in peace. He needed to try this already final 12 months, when he broke his collarbone within the eighth stage of this race. Nonetheless, his workforce and particularly Alexander Vinokurov satisfied him to increase his profession by a 12 months and it paid off.
Most stage wins
35 – Mark Cavendish (Nice Britain)
34 – Eddy Merckx (Belgium)
28 – Bernard Hinault (France)
