“I endured the Pyrenees well" - Mark Cavendish ready for next opportunity at historic sprint victory

Realistically, stage 7 of the 2023 Tour de France marks the third opportunity for Astana Qazaqstan Team's Mark Cavendish to take a historic 35th stage win at the race. After a gruelling couple of days in the Pyrenees, Cavendish is feeling good.

"I don't want our opponents to know what we're going to do," says the 'Manx Missile' prior to the start of stage 6. “I endured the Pyrenees well. The guys helped me a lot and I'm proud of them. I tried to waste as little energy as possible.”

Believed to be a key part of any possible Cavendish success is Mark Renshaw. Cav's former leadout man is now part of the backroom staff at Astana, working as a sprint train consultant. "It's a perfect sprint opportunity on a boulevard," he tells Wielerflits.  “The finish is very similar to the last kilometer in 2010, when Mark Cavendish also won. It is the first real boulevard sprint in this Tour de France.”

"It is certainly possible. Like all other riders, he needs a bit of luck,” says Renshaw. “Jasper Philipsen has shown that he is the biggest favourite, but he also had to come from the twelfth wheel in his last sprint victory and he needed Van der Poel for that.”