"I’m a very, very happy person" - Dream finale for Mark Cavendish's career-long goal of breaking Tour de France record
Cycling
The 35th stage win at the Tour de France has finally come about for Mark Cavendish. The Manx Missile has worked towards this goal throughout over decade and a half and over the past few years it often looked like the dream was unrealistic or even over. It required tremendous tenacity, patience and belief to make it this far but this Wednesday Cavendish has become an official individual record holder.
"I’m not someone who celebrates by throwing a party or doing something crazy. I just want to be with everyone who has helped make what we’ve done happen. I’m a very, very happy person," Cavendish admitted in an interview with Wielerflits. "I have an incredible team with Astana Qazaqstan. An incredible group of friends and teammates, especially an incredible family. I’m so grateful that we’re here. My family came here last night, then they went to the start and finish. It always means so much to me when they’re on the race, so they can win with me.”
Astana has put on a massive display of confidence in Cavendish over the past year and a half; signing him last minute, signing Sporting Director, coach and leadout from previous years and providing him with full support into the Tour de France despite the difficult season he's had. Cavendish has completely changed his way of working this year to fit 'modern cycling's standards better and all of these factors payed off on stage 5 of the Tour as he beat Jasper Philipsen in the final sprint.
It is the end of what the team has termed 'Project 35', which will ultimately be the highlight of it's season, and what the team worked on the most. “I'm really happy about that. I've been away from home so often… When I've been home for three weeks this year, it's been a lot. Being away, training, racing. Not just me, all my teammates. Everyone has put so much energy into this project."
There were many words both from him and figures from throughout all the peloton as he succeeded in this historic feat, and he has no problem in complementing the competitors that have made this a challenge, alongside all those who thanked him at the finish line in Saint-Vulbas yesterday. “I feel very privileged that I have had the opportunity to share the peloton with riders in recent years that I will remain a fan of after my own career, when I see them on TV."
" But the vast majority of the riders said: ‘I hope you can take that stage win here’, and things like that. That makes me really emotional… There is an incredibly good group of riders in both the men's and women's peloton. That is the future of our sport. I am proud that I can soon say that they were my opponents before I quit.”
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- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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🇫🇷 PHOTO: @LeTour Well, the time has come! @GarminCycling #TDF2024 #AstanaQazaqstanTeam #GarminCycling
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