"Fuel for the Tour de France" - Mark Cavendish builds momentum with powerful Tour de Hongrie sprint win

For the first time in over three months and just the second time this season, Mark Cavendish tasted victory on Thursday afternoon, sprinting to a powerful stage 2 win at the Tour de Hongrie.

“I’m really happy. Really, really happy with that," reflected the Astana Qazaqstan Team sprinter post-stage, having faded out of winning contention a day prior. "Yesterday we didn’t quite hit the lead-out properly – it was super good, everyone committed 100%, we were just a bit eager a bit too soon so we talked to rectify that today. It was a completely different finish today, no big boulevard, corners to make it technical, and we executed it exactly how we wanted to do."

With the likes of Cees Bol and Michael Morkov in support at the Tour de Hongrie, the Astana Qazaqstan Team leadout could be clicking at just the perfect moment with the Tour de France looming and the last chance of Cavendish's legendary career to surpass the great Eddy Merckx with what would be a record-breaking 35th stage win.

“We had Yevgeniy Gidich looking after us all day so we didn’t take any wind, he did the same yesterday; Michele Gazzoli on the climb, Big Gleb Syritsa keeping us completely sheltered – I had it so easy into the last kilometres. Cees and Morkov into the last kilometre used the other teams, then used the speed we had to get us as close as we can to the line because it was quite a bit uphill. We wanted to get close, it was always going to be a shorter sprint than normal," Cavendish assesses delightedly. "We nailed it, I’m so happy, coming here after a good training block with the team. Fuel going for the Tour de France – it’s very good, I’m very happy.”