A hugely emotional Mark Cavendish thanked his wife and children for supporting him over the last few years as he finally achieved his long-held ambition of becoming the most successful Tour de France stage winner of all time.
The Manx rider, 39, claimed his 35th Tour stage, which lifts him one clear of Belgian great Eddy Merckx, rolling back the years with a sensational sprint into Saint-Vulbas in stage five of the 111th Tour. He then collapsed into the arms of his wife, Peta, and children Delilah, 12, Frey, eight, Casper, six and Astrid, one, who later joined him on the podium.
Other friends and team-mates, including his former housemate and Great Britain colleague Geraint Thomas, were also swiftly on the scene to congratulate one of the sport’s most colourful and compelling characters.
Cavendish, who was knighted last month and is in the final year of his career, having stayed on one more year in an attempt to claim this record, said he was “privileged” to have been able to celebrate with loved ones.
“I think I’ve been home less than three weeks this year,” he said when asked about the presence of his family, who watched the denouement outside the Astana-Qazaqstan team bus near the finish line. “I’ve been away so much training, racing. Not just me but my team-mates. Everyone has put a lot into this. You know, when you’ve got five children and your wife is bringing them up, making sure they live a normal life when dad’s away…It’s pretty special you know? They’ve been supporting me the whole time.
“For them to be able to come over yesterday and share this moment, I think any father would be able to testify how special it is. What’s the point in doing anything unless you can share it with those closest to you, your family, particularly children, and with your friends? I’m very fortunate to get that privilege today.”
Now 39, Cavendish – who was knighted in the King’s Birthday Honours last month – is no longer the quickest sprinter in the peloton. But he is still one of the canniest and most tactically astute.
After making it easily over the Côte de Lhuis – a 3 kilometre climb averaging 4.8 per cent with about 30 kilometres of the stage remaining, which some thought might trouble him, but which Cavendish opted to ride right on the front of the bunch – he was shepherded into the final kilometre by his team-mates before going solo in the final 600 metres, coming around the last bend and hugging the left hand barrier before leaving his rivals for dead. It was a glorious performance.
“I saw Alpecin had numbers so I thought go with them,” he said of his tactics. “[Pascal] Ackerman would be there, but you can’t really predict which way Pascal goes. You have to kind of wait for him to jump and then come off him. So that’s what I did.”
The win was all the more remarkable for the fact that Cavendish suffered so badly in the first few days of the race, vomiting on stage 1 in the searing heat of Tuscany, and then grinding his way through an equally hot second stage to Bologna featuring six more categorised climbs. Tuesday’s stage saw the peloton crest the Galibier, the highest point of the race so far, on the first big mountain stage of the race. But Cavendish said he had always had confidence in his Astana team and had tried to remain calm, even though he was tired.
“I think you saw with the final half-a-stage today, my boys were committed. That means more than anything in terms of how I feel physically,” he said. “It’s the Tour de France, you’re never going to feel fresh in this bike race. I think that’s the same for anyone.
“But yeah if you know what you have to do… if I stay calm and trust in my boys, I know I’m in with my best shot. There’s nothing else you can do except for realise that. And when you realise that you’re going to be more calm. That’s my sports psychology talk but not very eloquently told!”
Cavendish, who said he would try to complete his final Tour and reach the final time trial in Nice – the final stage has been moved from Paris because of the Olympics – also hit out at his critics, saying there would “always be someone wanting to take something away from you”.
“Of course there will be people who didn’t believe I could win another stage of the Tour. But that’s because they don’t know what it takes to win a stage of the Tour. They’ll say ‘It’s an easy stage’ or whatever. That happens. But we do what we can and that’s all we can do!”
British Cycling released a statement describing Cavendish as “one of our country’s truly great sportsmen and sporting personalities” while the rest of the peloton, including yellow jersey wearer and two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogacar, likewise paid tribute.
“When I was a kid I was watching Mark with my friends and my brothers and he was such a class. Now it’s already six years I’m racing against him and we’re quite good friends I would say. It’s an historic moment. Congrats.
“Mark asked me back there ‘Please don’t break this record, so I will let him have it!”
Cavendish said he was honoured to be riding with this generation. “I’m very fortunate to be able to share the peloton now in my final years with riders that I’ll continue to be a fan of once I’ve stopped riding. Everybody has been so nice these last few days.
“Well not everybody, but the majority have said ‘I hope you can win that 35th stage’. It really gets me emotional. We’ve got an incredible group of bike riders in the men’s and women’s peloton in 2024. And I’m proud I get to call them competitors before I hang up my wheels.”