Cavendish equals Merckx record

CARCASONA, France.

The British sprinter Mark Cavendish won the sprint on the 13th stage of the Tour of Francia, ending in Carcassonne, and equals the record of 34 partial wins on the Grande Boucle of the Belgian cycling legend Eddy Merckx.

It is the fourth victory in this edition of the Tour for Cavendish, 36, who edged out Deceuninck teammate Michael Morkov and Jasper Philipsen, who deprived Spaniard Iván García Cortina of finishing in the top three.

Without a doubt, the 13th stage of the Tour de France was the gentlest of those played so far. The length of the route, 220 km on the second longest day of this edition and the proximity of the Pyrenean stages made the 155 survivors take the day in stride, except for the last 20 km, very tense due to time.

The only shock for the platoon was a drop in the queue of the group in the absence of 60 km in which a thirty runners (Declercq, Poels, Higuita, De la Parte, Kragh Andersen and Bouhanni, among them) and which caused the abandonment of the British Simon Yates, the Australian Lucas Hamilton (both from the Bike Exchange Team) and the German Roger Kluge, who was the last classified of the Tour, at 2:44:54 of the leader Pogacar.

The Deceuninck tried to break the group in those final 20 km of high wind, but it did not matter to him not to achieve it since he kept Cavendish’s bullet in the chamber and the native of the Isle of Man, who lives a second youth, did not fail in his attempt to match Merckx.

Now the goal even Paris will be to overcome the Belgian myth.

You will not be able to achieve it on Saturday’s stage, which is 183.7 km long between Carcassonne and Quillan, which in an aperitif of the Pyrenean days that will come in the following days, cyclists will have to overcome three second-category ports (the last of them 20 km from the finish line) and two third.

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