Cavendish...

[Comrade 86]

... aka, The Manx Missile, wins his 35th stage win in style!

It was like he just joined the race with a 100m to go 😎

[BaaLocks]

Damn, I thought you were posting to tell us the Cavendish Hotel had reopened? A place of fearsome reputation en route to the BBG.

[RadioactiveWaste]

Fantastic achievment for him.

I feared the worst on the opening stage (which was incredibly tough, not the gnetly rolling around northern france for a week before a hard stage this year) when he was throwing up and sufferng in the heat, but, you can't keep a good one down and he's achieved something pretty immense.

[Grumpy Git]

Hard as nails. 💪🏻

[Eddie]

Brilliant - the best sprinter of all time.

[Dordogne-Ram]

To ride away from the current top sprinters at 39 years of age is remarkable.  
It was widely speculated in the press when he announced that he would ride this year’s Tour that he might be “ allowed” to get his 35th stage victory to surpass Eddie Merck record. There was no doubt that today he won on merit, with a victory reminiscent in many ways to his win at Brive around 2017, where he jumped from wheel- to -wheel as his team mates fell away. Never has a stage winner received the acclaim from fellow riders which he received today.

Andre Darrigade was widely regarded as the previous best sprinter, with 22 stage wins, and few others, if any, have reached double figures. 
 

Well done “Cav”, and let’s see what tomorrow brings…..!

[Chester40]

With cycling there's always the spectre of drugs in the background.

With Cavendish ...he really just hangs in there most of the time and then uses his skills to get on the right wheel and navigate between other riders, with a burst of power to get clear over a few yards....so to my mind there's a lot less concern that its all a bit 'suspect'.

His ability and courage are there to be seen and feel very human. Riders powering up mountains after weeks of effort seem almost extra-terrestrial or robotic. His personality helps with that too.  It doesn't feel like it comes easy, it feels emotional and raw.

Edited July 6 by Chester40

[RadioactiveWaste]

I remember seeing him talking about his TDF stage win record a couple of years ago and he pointed out that he's not got anywhere near the peak power of a lot of sprinters, but it comes down to what can you do after 120 miles before, on all the days before, it's how can you sprint when you're utter f*****?

[Phoenix]

2 hours ago, Chester40 said:

With cycling there's always the spectre of drugs in the background.

With Cavendish ...he really just hangs in there most of the time and then uses his skills to get on the right wheel and navigate between other riders, with a burst of power to get clear over a few yards....so to my mind there's a lot less concern that its all a bit 'suspect'.

His ability and courage are there to be seen and feel very human. Riders powering up mountains after weeks of effort seem almost extra-terrestrial or robotic. His personality helps with that too.  It doesn't feel like it comes easy, it feels emotional and raw.

'The Secret Race' by Tyler Hamilton is a really good read. On Lance Armstrong's US Postal team, spilt the beans on the chicanery involved in Armstrong's success. Unbelievable lengths they went to in their strategies and cover-ups. Strongly recommended.

[Chester40]

9 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

'The Secret Race' by Tyler Hamilton is a really good read. On Lance Armstrong's US Postal team, spilt the beans on the chicanery involved in Armstrong's success. Unbelievable lengths they went to in their strategies and cover-ups. Strongly recommended.

Yep - read it and loved it.👍👍