Tour: Cavendish poker, equals Merckx's record

The fortress of Carcassone conquered by a cannon ball, launched towards the history of cycling. In the medieval citadel of Occitania, where the group had never managed to sprint to the Tour de France, the strongest sprinter of recent years, the British Mark Cavendish from the Isle of Man, won his fourth stage this year, but above all he equaled Eddy Merckx's record: 34 wins at the Grande Boucle. Extraordinary acceleration concentrated in a height of one meter and seventy, 36 years old, was considered over until a few months ago. He found a team of masters in the sprints, the Deceuninck-Quickstep already planned for the Irish Sam Bennet, now devoted to his service. And he found himself. "I don't want to think about this," he said hot, speaking of the record.Cavendish knows well that he and Merckx are two very different cyclists, completely different eras and incomparable to each other. The Belgian won between the 60s and 70s on all terrains, stage races, time trials, in the mountains. Cavendish is a sprint specialist, 12 years ago he won the classic best suited to fast wheels, the Milan-Sanremo. The closest thing the two have are the nicknames, by assonance. Eddy, the Cannibal, because he took everything he could, leaving nothing to his opponents. Mark has always been 'Cannonball' for how he comes out shot in front of everyone else. He knows he has an irresistible inspiration, but he also owes a lot to his teammates. Michael Morkov today piloted it up to a few meters from the finish line, finishing second ahead of Denmark's Jasper Philipsen.Davide Ballerini was the third 'wagon' of the Decenuninck blue train: "We made history" Cavendish yelled at him in Italian, hugging him, shortly after crossing the finish line. "The guys were incredible", he repeated even later, in the first interview, exhausted, at the end of the second longest stage of the Tour, 219.9 km, starting from Nimes. It was supposed to be a smooth transfer, with little elevation gain in the heat of southern France. It was like this up to 60 kilometers from the finish when yet another fall devastated the group, with about fifteen runners who ended up on the ground and some even in the escarpment at the edge of the road, forced to go up again with the bike on their shoulders. The most battered, Simon Yates, third in the Giro d 'Italy and teammate in the Bike Exchange Lucas Hamilton: both retired. For the rest Tadej Pogacar, increasingly in yellow, controlled, trying to stay ahead even in the most excited phases, leaving space for the sprinters only in the very last phases. From tomorrow the mountains return, with the Eastern Pyrenees, and it will be a different race awaiting the third and decisive week.