Tour de France: veteran Mark Cavendish sprints to the first stage win in five years

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Marc Cavendish celebrates the 31st Tour de France victory of his career

Photo: GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO / AFP

Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quickstep) won the fourth stage of the 108th Tour de France.

The Brit won the sprint after 150.4 kilometers from Redon to Fougères, ahead of Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni (Team Arkéa-Samsic) and Belgian Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix).

Cavendish had already won in Fougères in 2015, now it was his 31st stage victory in the Tour.

For the 36-year-old Cavendish, it is the end of a long dry spell: In 2011, the self-proclaimed “fastest man on two wheels” was still world champion and won the green jersey of the sprinter with the highest points in the Tour de France.

Cavendish enjoyed success well into 2016.

Then Cavendish lost touch with the world's best, fell ill with glandular fever in 2017 and 2018 and missed the last two editions of the tour for reasons of performance.

The old star did not find his way back until 2021, due to a knee injury to Sam Bennett, Cavendish will be number one in his racing team in the sprint decisions at the Tour of France this summer.

The Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) successfully defended the overall leader's yellow jersey.

The 26-year-old is eight seconds ahead of French Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) and 31 seconds ahead of Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) from Ecuador.

After driving a kilometer, the peloton stopped to demonstrate for more safety after the heavy falls of the first days of the tour.

cev / dpa