Mark Cavendish claims record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage win

Sir Mark Cavendish has won a record-breaking 35th career Tour de France stage with victory on stage five in Saint-Vulbas.

Three years after matching Eddy Merckx on 34 during the 2021 Tour, Cavendish moved clear of the Belgian to stand alone in Tour history.

Cavendish came off the wheel of Fabio Jakobsen in the finale and had the power to hold off Jasper Philipsen.

The 39-year-old postponed his planned retirement after crashing out of last year’s Tour, with his Astana-Qazaqstan team going all-in on ‘Project 35’ ahead of this year’s race.

His victory comes just four days after Cavendish struggled mightily in the heat of a punishing opening stage out of Florence, vomiting on the bike in concerning scenes, and two days after he missed the opportunity to contest stage three after being caught behind a late crash in Turin.

Cavendish’s four stage wins in 2021 counted as one of sport’s great comeback stories, his first victories at the Tour in five years after a period of time marked by illness and injury which contributed to a diagnosis of depression.

Even since those wins three years ago, Cavendish has endured more difficulty, only signing a last-minute deal with Astana-Qazaqstan ahead of the 2023 season after the collapse of another move, then seeing last year’s Tour end abruptly on stage eight.

Cavendish’s Astana-Qazaqstan bossed the front of the peloton for much of the final 30km of the 177km stage from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne but in the finale the Manxman used his years of experience of surf the wheels before powering clear of his rivals.

He left behind his lead-out man Michael Morkov and moved behind Philipsen and then Jakobsen, before spying space on the left-hand side of the road and bursting clear.

Cavendish’s wife Peta and their children were waiting at the team bus and joined in exuberant celebrations.

Cavendish said: “I’m in a little bit of disbelief. Astana put a big gamble on this year to make sure we’re good here at the Tour, my boss has done it.

“It’s a big gamble to come here to try to win at least one stage, a big gamble for my boss Alexander Vinokourov, a big thing to do, it shows he’s an ex-bike rider, somebody who knows what the Tour de France is.

“You have to go all-in and we’ve done it and worked it exactly how we wanted to do, how we built the team, the equipment, every little detail has been put towards today.”