“Cavendish City” - French city renamed in honour of sprint legend ahead of Tour de France return

Mark Cavendish may have retired, but his legend lives on in France, quite literally. The town of Châteauroux, where the Manxman secured three of his record breaking 35 Tour de France stage wins, will officially be renamed “Cavendish City” for a day when the race returns on July 13th.

"Châteauroux makes way for Cavendish City," announced mayor Gil Averous in a social media post. "Three stage wins, that's well worth a shout-out."

Cavendish first announced himself to the world in Châteauroux back in 2008, outsprinting Oscar Freire for his first ever Tour stage victory. He returned to win again in 2011, and completed the trio in 2021, thirteen years after his first triumph, proving the longevity of one of the sport’s greatest sprinters. On top of that, in both 2011 and 2021, he won the green jersey classification, ten years apart!

Though Cavendish will not line up for the 2025 Tour de France after retiring last year, his presence will be strongly felt as Stage 9 of the race concludes in the town he made his own. The stage begins in Chinon and covers 174 flat kilometres, making a bunch sprint finish highly likely, exactly the sort of day Cavendish used to dominate.