Cavendish sprints into the Tour’s history books
Brit finally breaks stage-win record with textbook sprint, reports Tom Davidson at the race
The air was filled with a cocktail of both disbelief and relief in Saint-vulbas last week, when Mark Cavendish, at 39 years old, sprinted to a record-breaking 35th stage win at the Tour de France.
It was a distinctly ordinary setting for history to take place. Beside an industrial park on a newly tarmacked road, fans scaled mosscovered trees to get a better view of the finish line. There were no bars, restaurants or boulangeries to pass the time, only the suspense of an impending bunch sprint, and a chance to see a record broken.
The arrival of the pack was signalled by a voice over the tannoy. People pressed tighter against the barriers, and watched on the big screens as Cavendish surfed his way through the bunch, weaving right and left across the road, and piercing through a gap onto the front. When the first kicks of the Brit’s sprint came, a roar burst out, carrying him across the line ahead of Jasper Philipsen, a man 13 years his junior. Then, for a moment, the crowd stood still, stunned by the weight of history.
Metres beyond the finish line, Cavendish’s wife, Peta, had been waiting anxiously. “Oh my God, he did it,” she cried, holding their youngest of four children in her arms. The other three jumped for joy, before hurdling the barriers to try and catch the sprinter’s attention. “Daddy! Daddy!” Cavendish’s eldest daughter shouted. When he finally heard her, through the clicking of camera shutters, he forced a gap in the melee, and welcomed her into the chaos.
Love of Le Tour
“People didn’t believe I could win another stage of the Tour,” Cavendish said in his post-stage press conference, 16 years after his first victory at the race. “I love this race, I have always loved this race. I love this race when I ride it, I love this race when I watch it, and I’ll always give it 100%.”
By the Astana-qazaqstan team bus, parked along a nearby wheat field, the Brit’s coach, Vasilis Anastopoulos, looked as if he was on the cusp of tears. “He’s just phenomenal,” he said. “You cannot imagine how much pressure this guy was under. But he’s a great champion, and only champions can handle this pressure.”
Saint-vulbas, an uninspiring town of around 1,000 people in the Ain department, became the epicentre of global sport in the days afterwards. It will surely become a pilgrimage site, where fans can pay tribute to the place cycling’s greatest ever sprinter achieved immortality.