Cavendish wins and equals Eddy Merckx

A new flat stage in the Tour de France and a new opportunity that the British Mark Cavendish was not going to miss. Cavendish has finally put his name in the history of the Tour de France in gold letters, equaling the record of 34 victories of the cannibal Eddy Merckx. 

The thirteenth stage of this Tour was surely marked in red on the sprinters' calendar, but with Caleb Ewan, Sam Bennett, Arnaud Démare, Elia Viviani, Pascal Ackermann and Peter Sagan all out, it remained to be seen which team would work all day to facilitate a tight finish, Ineos? Cavendish's Deceuninck?

Again hellish pace and continuous attacks at the start of stage 13 of the Tour de France 2021

The 13th stage of this Tour de France started from Nîmes with a finish in Carcasonne. 219.9 kilometers where the riders would encounter a single fourth category pass at kilometer 51.5 - the Côte du Pic Saint-Loup (5.5 kilometers at 3.6%) - and a bonus sprint at kilometer 104.2. As is becoming the norm, the stage started at a beastly pace with the peloton riding as if the riders didn't already have 2,000 kilometers in their legs. This figure was reached at kilometer 4 of this stage.

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Many and continued attacks at the beginning of the stage. The riders tried to break away from the start with the intention of repeating the formula of stage 12, but the peloton did not seem to allow it and neutralized each breakaway. First Stefan Küng, who already tried his luck yesterday, or Max Walscheid, Mads Pedersen and Lorenzo Rota later tried their breakaway but without success.

Those who did manage to break away were the trio formed by Omer Goldstein, Pierre Latour and Sean Bennett. With 173.2 kilometers to go, the gap to the peloton was 4'25".

The only pass of the day, the Côte du Pic Saint-Loup of category 4 and with a point at stake for the king of mountain classification, was to be won by the Frenchman Pierre Latour. The gap between the escapees and the peloton remained above 4 minutes.

Behind, Tim Declercq of the Deceuninck-Quick Step team was pulling the peloton with the intention of reducing the gap. The Belgian tractor did not seem willing to let the escapees go any longer and managed to reduce the gap to just over 2 minutes. The Alpecin-Fenix team was also moving at the head of a peloton that was going to show much more resistance today.

The bonus intermediate sprint was won by Israeli rider Omer Goldstein, followed by Bennett and Latour. British rider Mark Cavendish arrived in eighth position, scoring 8 points for a total of 229, establishing himself as owner and master of the green jersey in this Tour de France. The distance between the three escapees and the peloton remained around 2 minutes 39 seconds.

The peloton was controlling the race and the gap was closing. 1 minute 47 seconds with 75.2 km to go and the tractor Declerq was pulling again. Precisely, Declerq and other riders among which were: Rafal Majka, Geraint Thomas, Nacer Bouhanni, Wout Poels or Sergio Higuita were to be involved in a crash with 65 km to go and that ended up causing the abandonment of the German Roger Kluge and Simon Yates.

A crash just on the day that the UCI has decided that the 3km rule will be applied at 4.5km from the finish. In other words, if an incident (crash or mechanical) occurs in the last 4.5 km, the victims will be credited with the time of the group they belonged to at the time.

With 50 km to go the peloton hunted down the day's escapees and regrouped, at least for a short time, because it didn't take long for Frenchman Quentin Pacher to jump out and go solo.

Jan Bakelants tried to catch Pacher but the Belgian was soon swallowed up again by a peloton controlled by the Deceuninck of Mark Cavendish, who suffered a flat tire and had to change bikes a few kilometers earlier. Australian Lucas Hamilton, another of those involved in the crash, also dropped out of the race.

Quentin Pacher was also finally swallowed up by the peloton with 19 kilometers to go. The peloton was riding at a furious pace due to the hard work now being done by the Ineos riders who were going to reduce the bunch. 

Sprint finish and all eyes on Mark Cavendish 

Last kilometers and a sprint finish was in sight with all eyes on Mark Cavendish. Nervousness at the head of the peloton and all the remaining specialists taking positions.

Last kilometer slightly uphill and the Deceuninck perfectly positioned for Mark Cavendish to take his fourth stage win in this edition of the Tour for a total of 34 victories equaling Eddy Merckx's incredible record.

Incredible achievement of the British Mark Cavendish who enters the history of the Tour equaling no more and no less than the 34 stage victories of the legendary Eddy Merckx.

Another day at the office for Pogacar who continues to dominate in the general classification. 

STAGE 13

1. Mark Cavendish
2. Michael Morkov
3. Jasper Philipsen
4. Ivan Garcia
5. Danny van Poppel

GENERAL RANKING

1. Pogacar, T. - UAE | 52:27:12
2. Uran, R. - EF Nippo | +5:18
3. Vingegard, J. - Jumbo Visma | +5:32