Mark Cavendish finally reached cycling immortality on Friday, winning Stage 13 of this year's Tour de France to equal the great Eddy Merckx's long-standing record of 34 stage victories. He crossed the finish line in Carcassonne just ahead of Deceuninck-QuickStep teammate Michael Morkov of Denmark and Belgium's Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix), second and third, respectively, in a time of five hours, four minutes, and 29 seconds.
It has been an incredible resurgence by Cavendish, whose pursuit of the Tour record stalled after a string of ailments and injuries dogged the Briton. He even hinted about retirement last year after crashing out of the Tour de France in 2017 and finishing outside the time limit in his last Tour appearance in 2018.
Cavendish makes the most of Tour opportunity
An opportunity opened for Cavendish, though, after Deceuninck-QuickStep's main sprinter Sam Bennett suffered a knee injury before the start of the Tour. Cavendish stepped in at the last minute to replace the Irishman, but even Deceuninck-Quickstep's head Patrick Lefevere was not confident of his chances for the Grand Tour.
"As for Mark Cavendish, expectations are not too high," Lefevere said in an interview before the start of this year's Tour de France. "He's not 30 years old anymore. He is pleased, he is as nervous as if he was riding his first race in the juniors. If he doesn't win, everyone will think it's normal. If he wins, everyone will put him on a throne."
Cavendish exceeded expectations, though, contesting four sprints at this Tour and winning all four of them. The road to stage win number 34 was not easy though, as the flat 219.9-kilometer route from Nimes to Carcassonne offered unexpected challenges along the way.
Cavendish's victory looked to be in jeopardy with 36 kilometers remaining when he suffered a flat tire, but the Briton was able to rejoin the peloton and position himself for the record-tying victory.
Cavendish paid tribute to Merckx after the stage win, saying, "I don't think I can ever be compared to the great Eddy Merckx, the greatest male road cyclist of all time, but I think to equal him with the record number of stage victories, for people who don't follow cycling a lot, is something they can understand and put into perspective. If that inspires them to get on a bike, because a British rider has done that, then it's the biggest thing I can take from it."
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Cavendish extends green jersey lead
Cavendish's historic win came 13 years after his first stage win at the Tour de France back in 2008. He also cemented his grip on the green jersey as he added another 50 points to his tally with the sprint win. Cavendish now sits on 279 points, 101 points ahead of closest challenger Australian Michael Matthews of Team BikeExchange. Coming in third is Philipsen, who is a further seven points back.
The challenge now for Cavendish is to survive the Pyrenees in the coming days to give himself a chance to break Merckx's record and win the green jersey for the first time since 2011. Cavendish's first opportunity to break the record will come on next Friday's flat stage.
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