After Lance Armstrong's meadow the day before, our retro in the Tour is still in the green.
On July 13, 2011, between Blaye-les-Mines and Lavaur, Mark Cavendish will drive the 18th nail on the base of his reign.
Without really trembling, the Englishman of the HTC team sprinted his 18th stage on the Tour de France ahead of the German André Greipel (Omega - Pharma Lotto) and the American Tyler Farrar (Team Garmin - Cervelo).
The escape of the day, launched by the French Mickaël Delage (FDJ) experienced the classic fate of the game of cat and mouse.
Maintained at a distance by the peloton led by the HTC, his last survivor, the Dutchman Lars Boom (Rabobank) is caught two kilometers from the line.
On this 2011 Tour, Cavendish's third stage victory went on to win two more: the 15th stage then the 21st and last on the Champs-Élysées.
Cavendish, the 30-something
In his entire career, Mark Cavendish will win thirty stages.
He ranks just behind the huge Eddy Merckx in the number of stages won on the Tour (34).
For a long time, he dreamed of overtaking the Belgian.
Without success.
But this July 13, 2011 is not a day of celebration like any other for the sprinter from the Isle of Man.
For the first time on this Tour, he wears the green jersey of the points classification which he steals from the Spaniard José Rojas (Movistar).
Since 2008, the year of his first Tour victory, Cavendish has failed to bring the green tunic back to Paris.
This time, he is determined to afford a podium on the Champs-Élysées.
He will achieve it.
But it will be the only one of his career.
In 2012 and 2013, despite three and then two new victories, he never made it again.
A certain Peter Sagan having decided to make the green tunic his own.
The victorious sprint on the Champs-Elysées