This year’s Tour of France will remain a bicycle star Mark Cavendish last. A 38-year-old sprinter told in the spring that he will end his professional career this season.
Before that, he has a chance to overtake what is considered the best cyclist of all time Eddie Merckx in the number of stage wins of the Tour de France and move alone to the top of the statistics. Both drivers have 34 first places in France.
Merckx, who won 11 major tours (Italy, France and Spain) in the 1960s and 1970s, was also successful in the mountain stages and mastered the sport in a versatile way. Cavendish has achieved his stage victory purely with his explosive final sprint.
Cavendish won the final stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia at the end of the race, so he still has a shot at the stage win and record.
According to Mansaarelainen, the hunger for victory motivates him more than the pursuit of records.
– If I had 45 wins on the Tour, I would still go there to win. If I had 18 wins, I’d crave the next one, Cavendish said.
A year ago, Cavendish could not fit in the Quick-Step team of his team, despite his good performances, which caused confusion. He will participate in this year’s race in the Astana team.
An incredible return to the top
Cavendish was a familiar figure in the tight final stages of the tours of France and Italy in the 2010s and a little before that. The wild shots often ended irresistibly with the party of Cavendish.
At the end of 2020, the career at the sharpest peak seemed to be already over. Cavendish had suffered from constant fatigue caused by a persistent virus for a long time, and no success had come for years. The last stage victory in France was in 2016, and there had been no other victories in two years.
The situation tested the mental health of the victorious Cavendish. He was diagnosed with depression in 2018.
– This was perhaps the last race of my career, Cavendish said with a trembling voice after the poorly run Gent-Wevelgem race in October 2020.
For the next season, Cavendish switched from the Bahrain-McLaren team back to his old team Quick-Step, which he had represented from 2013–2015. Due to the lack of success, the pressure eased. He made it to the tour of France from the position of the back-up driver.
– It was a surprise to join, because Quick-Step is one of the biggest teams in the sport, and I knew my place. I believed I could still win, but I knew why it didn’t happen and what I was going through. As a professional, you know that when you do the work, the result will come at some point.
Britti won no fewer than four stages in France in 2021 and took the overall victory in the steeplechase for the second time in his career. Kirityk’s return was described into one of the sport’s greatest.
– At the beginning of the season, I thought that this would be my last season. I didn’t expect a story like this. I knew I was still good, but I have to be able to show it in the race. The season ended up being fairytale-like, Cavendish set the mood after the season.
Since 2006, the Tour of France has been won more than once by only Slovakia, in addition to Cavendish Peter Sagan, who wore the green jersey no less than seven times from 2012 to 2019. Sagan also quits this season.
Age doesn’t matter
At the age of 38, Cavendish is one of the oldest riders in the top-level World Tour of road cycling. Even though the string characteristics will inevitably deteriorate over time, the short-limbed pedaler is still as if made for the final strings, because his natural riding position is very aerodynamic.
– I have experience and know-how about competitions. I know how and when to strike during the final round. I may be old, but I still love to compete.
As some professional cyclists get older, they begin to think of racing as a routine job. Cavendish is inspired by young riders.
– They all have the fire to achieve something big. It makes me thrive. I am a fanatic and a fan of cycling and pure competition. It’s funny that Tadej Pogacar was only seven when I took part in the Tour for the first time. Competing with young people makes me feel young again.
However, Cavendish has become a little more cautious with age. In the final stretch, it hurts and happens when the sprinters put everything on the line. You no longer recover from crashes in the same way as when you were young.
– The older you are, the more you get hurt. You don’t think about it all the time, but you also don’t take the same risks as you did in your twenties. Especially when you have children, you become a little more careful in every aspect of life.
Pogacar v. Vingegaard, Part Three
In the all-around race, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar of the UAE team and last year’s winner Jumbo-Visma from Denmark by Jonas Vingegaard middle ground.
Pogacar, 24, won the Tour overall in 2020 and 2021. Vingegaard, 26, finished second in his first Tour in 2021 and managed to defeat Pogacar last year.
The Slovenian was clearly the stronger of the two in the eight-stage Paris-Nice stage race held in March, which he won by 53 seconds To David Gaudu. Vingegaard was third, 1.53 behind Pogacar.
Pogacar broke his wrist in April at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege spring classic, but made a triumphant return to the competition at the Slovenian championships at midsummer. Vingegaardin’s fitness is on the rise, and he has won the tour of the Basque Country and the Criterium du Dauphine stage championship during the spring and summer.
The start of the circumnavigation, the Grand Depart, is often pedaled outside of France. This year we will start from the autonomous region of Spain’s Basque Country, where the first three stages will be pedaled.
The 182-kilometer Mäkinen opening leg starts and ends in Bilbao, the capital of the Basque Country, on July 1. Next up are the 209 km hilly leg from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Saint Sébastien and the 187 km flat leg from Amorebieta-Etxano to Bayonne on the French side.
As usual, there are 21 stages in the race, and there are two intermediate days. The only individual time trial will be on stage 16. There are eight mountain stages that are important for the overall race.
Cyclists arrive at the finish line on the Champs-Elysee in Paris on Sunday, July 23. The total distance for the three-week contract will be 3,404 kilometers.