Even in his wildest dreams, he dared not hope for another victory in the Tour de France.
Yet it was he, Mark Cavendish, the 36-year-old Briton, who was the strongest during the 4th stage between Redon and Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine).
Fougères, a Breton town which is doing decidedly well at the Cav, which won here in 2015. Since then, water has flowed under the bridges.
Since 2016, the sprinter has been glued to the figure of 30 victories on the Grande Boucle, just four small units behind Eddy Merckx, the man with the most stage wins on the Tour.
The winner of the day: Mark Cavendish
In Fougères, after three days of hardship, the Tour caravan has resumed its good old habits. Still marked by the falls of the last few days, the runners have had enough. That's why they said stop, stopping for one minute to protest a few meters after the actual start at Redon. The following ? A classic day on the plain with a breakaway, which will be resumed at… 200 meters from the finish. As backpackers, Frenchman Pierre-Luc Périchon (Team Cofidis) and Belgian Brent Van Moer (Lotto-Soudal) set off on an adventure. 13 km from the finish, the French won but not the Belgian, who insisted. Heroic, the 138 km breakaway was finally absorbed in the last 500 meters by the rockets launched by the peloton. In a slight false flat, it is finally Mark Cavendish who takes the best on Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic),already third Monday and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix).
🚴💪🏆 MARK CAVENDISH'S VICTORY!
This is the Briton's 31st victory in the Tour de France.
He is ahead of Nacer Bouhanni at the end of a breathtaking finish where Brent Van Moer came close to the feat # TDF2021
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- France tv sport (@francetvsport) June 29, 2021
The number of the day: 31
It was thought that Eddy Merckx's record would never be broken.
For now, he's still holding on but he's seriously worried about that devil of Mark Cavendish.
Since his first success in the Tour de France in 2008, the Briton scored his 31st success on Tuesday, five years after the last.
For Cav, this success has a surreal side.
"Only three weeks ago, it seemed unthinkable to me to hope to win a stage in the Tour de France", coward very moved the rider from the Isle of Man.
At 36 years and 39 days old, he also becomes the oldest rider to win a stage of the Tour ahead of Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez in 2015 (36 years and 65 days).
The yellow jersey: Mathieu van der Poel
🗣️ "I will do my best"
Mathieu van der Poel hopes to keep his yellow tunic tomorrow at the end of the stopwatch in Mayenne but the Dutchman admits to fearing his great rival Wout Van Aert, exercise specialist
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- France tv sport (@francetvsport) June 29, 2021
In an almost uneventful stage, the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel did not have too much trouble keeping his yellow jersey. He will start this Wednesday on the time trial exercise between Changé and Laval (Mayenne) with his eight seconds ahead of Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step). “It will be difficult tomorrow on the time trial. This is for specialists. I don't ride this bike very often. So it will be difficult but I will do my best to defend the jersey. I think especially of Van Aert, he is really strong on the time trials. He's a specialist in aerodynamics and I haven't really worked on that. "