Cavendish resurrects on Tour at 36

A resurrected in the Tour de France.
Mark Cavendish signed his return in the fourth stage at the age of 36, this Tuesday in Fougères, on the eve of the time trial that Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin) will face with the yellow leader’s jersey.

Almost unemployed at the end of last season, Cavendish was resurrected this season with Belgian team Deceuninck-Quick Step. In Fougères
achieved his 31st stage on the Tour, thirteen years after the first. The native of the Isle of Man approached the absolute champion, the Belgian
Eddy Merckx, which holds the record for partial victories on the Tour with 34 stages.

“Five years, long ago!” Exclaimed a Cavendish who
had not won on the Tour since 2016. ‘It was a little bit at the bottom of the hole. My story is useful for people who are in this situation. You must never give up.

Weakened by the Epstein-Barr virus and
victim of a depression in 2018 According to his later statements, Cavendish has once again been a great sprinter on this Tour. With the help, of course, of a team shot to fight the sprints, especially with his Danish pitcher Michael Morkov.

History has everything to feed the legend of Cavendish: last October he was about to be left on the sidelines for lack of results in the last four seasons and he cried at the end of the Ghent-Wevelgem for this uncertain future. All this before showing convincing to Patrick Lefevere, the director of the Deceuninck team, to return to the Belgian formation, whose colors he already wore between 2013 and 2015, accepting a salary reduction.

Back in the ring for his stage wins at the Tour of Turkey in April, he was called up late to the Tour,
replacing Irishman Sam Bennett, green jersey in 2020 and faced with the formation of Lefevere, who should leave at the end of the year. I knew I could win. If not, I would not do more cycling, “said Cavendish on Tuesday, who will wear the green jersey after his triumph,
the 152nd of his career. At the finish, he beat Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni, who also posted his best performance of the season.

The outcome overshadowed the great performance of
Brent Van Moer, a young 23-year-old cyclist, recent stage winner at the Dauphiné. Long escaped with Frenchman Pierre-Luc Périchon, the Belgian was caught just 150 meters from the finish by a peloton thrown at full speed on the slight false uphill finish plain.

Protest over falls

Van der Poel, whose team bet on Belgian Jasper Philipsen in the sprint (third), spent another day in yellow. But the Dutchman expressed doubts about his ability to maintain first place at the end of the season.
Time trial scheduled between Changé and Laval. For the slim margin of 8 seconds that he maintains with the Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe and especially for the 31 seconds that only the Belgian Wout van Aert, the best rider of the three, gets out. “I have not really worked the chrono,” warned the Dutchman, without references in this discipline although his power can allow him, in theory, to limit the damage. I have to be realistic. I’m going to do my best to keep the yellow but Van Aert is really strong in the time trial.

At the Redon exit, cyclists protested after
multiple falls from the first days. The peloton put one foot on the ground for a minute, a few hundred meters after the actual start of the stage, before restarting. The cyclists requested, according to Radio Tour, that a “dialogue on safety be initiated with all interested parties in cycling, UCI, organizers, teams and riders.”