Insatiable Cavendish in his third winning sprint over six stages: reached in Angers Hinault stopped at an altitude of 28, the British champion with yesterday's success in Montauban, burning Marcel Kittel with power, overtook the Breton champion and now, exactly on the same day, on July 7, in which 41 years ago Merck won his last stage in the Tour in the Auch time trial, he is not too far behind the record of 34 victories achieved by the Cannibal.
That of the Belgian champion seemed an unattainable record for the other terrestrials. But now it is certainly less so, given the devastating power of Cavendish who demolished the German monopoly in the much celebrated sprint at the Giro with the five successes put together by the Kittel-Greipel duo before leaving thinking about the Tour. found on the roads of France, they would have done well to continue the Giro, where they wreaked havoc before abandoning it as deserters.
Cavendish turned 21 on May 31st and is experiencing one of his best seasons: with the charge of enthusiasm that this Tour is giving him, he has every chance to try to reach Merckx's record. And he would probably already be much closer today if he hadn't lived through the last two years in suffering at Etixx-Quick-Step, now Kittel's team, where Cannonball immediately found himself uncomfortable.
Then he had a hand in bad luck with the tremendous carom in the final sprint of the first stage of the 2014 Tour right in front of his home in England. The fact remains that for three years Cavendish had been stuck on the tally of 26 victories established with the success at Saint-Amand-Montrond in the 2013 Tour when he was still racing for Team Sky, but he had already understood that he had to change the scene because the team only worked for Chris Froome like the year before for Bradley Wiggins, leaving him alone to prepare the sprints.
When everyone thought that his passage to the South African team of Dimension Data this year was the sign that Cavendish had taken the boulevard of the sunset, here is his sensational resurrection him at the top of the world in the sprint, a specialty that in this Tour presents a parterre of roi like few other editions.
Celebrated Cavendish, who today could also try poker, the Tour is preparing to face the legendary Pyrenees this weekend with a ranking that always sees in the lead, with an advantage of more than 5 minutes on the best, Greg Van Avermaet, the Belgian of Bmc protagonist of Wednesday's great feat in Lorian.
