Achieved! Mark Cavendish is now the cyclist with the most victories in the Tour de France

35 victories in the Tour de France, a round figure that means that Mark Cavendish, after his triumph in the chaotic sprint that ended the 5th stage of the Tour de France 2024, surpasses those achieved by the legendary Eddy Merckx throughout his sports career.

Mark Cavendish makes the bland 5th stage of the Tour de France 2024 go down in history

After yesterday's mountainous stage and with the focus on the time trial next Friday, the Tour de France 2024 had two stages scheduled, today's and tomorrow's, for the sprinters to shine, and, as expected, they turned out to be quite uneventful for the spectator, except for the exciting outcome that ends a soap opera that had been going on for 3 years, the one about whether Mark Cavendish was going to be able to surpass the record of victories in the Tour de France held by Eddy Merckx.

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The menu of the day was a practically flat stage, with just a few small climbs, between Saint Jean de Mauriene and Saint Vulbas, covering a little over 177 km. Right from the start, the attitude of the cyclists indicated the script of the day, with attacks of little conviction and some strange ones, more for playing cyclists like the one who had Oier Lazkano and Juan Ayuso in a breakaway for a few kilometers than real offensives.

The breakaway that finally consolidated was made up of only two cyclists, Clement Russo and Matteo Vercher, who never managed to build a significant advantage with Alpecin-Deceuninck as the main responsible for controlling the race, not wanting any surprises towards the end.

What is inevitable on days with so little tension is that cyclists relax and falls occur, especially when passing through a bunch of small French towns with their islands and roundabouts, which anyone who has cycled in France surely has good memories of. In fact, the drama was scraped when, 60 km from the finish line, Tadej Pogacar himself, one of the few times he was not at the front of the peloton, was about to hit one of these islands, managing to avoid it at the last moment, although the swerve to do so caused some riders following him to fall.

With 15 km to go, the peloton switched to sprint mode, accelerating the pace and causing a somewhat chaotic approach due to the crosswinds in some areas. Fortunately, the last 4 kilometers were protected today thanks to the new rules approved by the UCI a few weeks ago.

As they entered the final kilometer, DSM and Alpecin were fighting for the best position and, in the end, they ended up hindering each other, in fact, Alpecin arrived at that point with 4 cyclists and all of them, including Mathieu van der Poel, got stuck, leaving Jasper Philipsen to fend for himself.

Sam Bennett took advantage of the situation to launch the sprint forcefully and, following him, Mark Cavendish appeared, finding a gap, in his style, with elbows and whatever it took, while others were trapped. He came out of his wheel looking for open space on the opposite side of the road, and in the swerve, Mads Pedersen, quite far back, hit the barriers and fell, fortunately apparently without consequences. Meanwhile, this space created by Cavendish was also a breath of fresh air for Philipsen, who managed to grab the British's wheel, but Cavendish's move was strong and powerful, leaving the Belgian with no chance of a comeback.

Thus, Mark Cavendish, if he wasn't already, goes down in cycling history, and he can retire peacefully at the end of this season, visibly happy and congratulated by practically the entire peloton after crossing the finish line.

Stage 5 Classification

1. Mark Cavendish (Astana) 4h08'46''
2. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +00''
3. Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X) +00''
4. Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) +00''
5. Fabio Jakobsen (DSM-firmenich-PostNL) +00''
6. Pascal Ackermann (Israel-PremierTech) +00''
7. Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +00''
8. Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Wanty) +00''
9. Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) +00''
10. Marijn Van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) +00''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 23h15'24''
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +45''
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +50''
4. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +1'10''
5. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1'14''
6. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +1'16''
7. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) +1'32''
8. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +1'32''
9. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +3'20''
10. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) +3'21''