Mark Cavendish’s chain came off today at the #TdF2024 as he crossed the line because he dropped from ~1500W to 0W. Quite common. 1.5kW is 2 horse power! Enough to power a toaster, or a kettle to boil water. Astonishing amount of power.
Now Mark Cavendish has realised 'Project 35' we analyse who if anyone is best placed to break the Tour de France stage win record next
CyclingFriday, 05 July 2024 at 14:00
History was made on stage 5 of the 2024 Tour de France as sprinting legend Mark Cavendish took a record breaking 35th Tour de France stage win, moving clear of the great Eddy Merckx as the most successful stage winner in the history of cycling's most iconic race.
"I can't believe it. It was a big gamble to be here, to try to win here. A big gamble for my boss (Alexandre Vinokourov, ed.). That shows that he is a former rider and that he knows what the Tour is," Cavendish said in a post-race interview. "We just did it. We did what we wanted. Every detail in terms of equipment and teammates was adapted to sprinting. We are not suddenly going to be at the top of the UCI rankings, but the Tour de France is bigger than cycling."
With an incredible 16 years between his first stage win and his most recent, Cavendish has defeated all the great sprinters of the modern era. From Thor Hushovd to Marcel Kittel, Jasper Philipsen to Erik Zabel, the longevity of the Manx Missile has been nothing short of incredible during his career. As such, it may seem unlikely that anyone could ever beat the record of the now 39-year-old sprinter. If it is to happen however, who is best placed?
Well, immediately following Cavendish's 35th win, the Astana Qazaqstan Team sprinter headed over the Maillot Jaune wearing Tadej Pogacar, urging the UAE Team Emirates leader "don't beat it!" to which Pogacar replied with a chuckle; "No I won't, no worries!"
Just 25 years old, Pogacar already has 12 Tour de France stage wins and counting (written prior to stage 7 of the 2024 Tour de France ed.). With 24 stages to go to improve on Cavendish's record, it may seem out of reach, but as seen by the UAE Team Emirates leader's 6 stage wins at the 2024 Giro d'Italia, Pogacar could very easily and very quickly build up that tally of Tour triumphs.
"When I was a kid, I was watching Mark with my friends and my brother," Pogacar said in his post-stage 5 press conference. "He was just a hero to so many guys. He was winning in such a class with the team together. Now I'm already racing against him for six years. We became quite good friends, I would say. Winning the 35th stage, he's in historical company. Mark asked me behind the podium 'Please don't break this record' so I will let him have it."
If not Pogacar, who else? Jonas Vingegaard might seem a good shout given his dominance at the Tour over the last two years. With just three stage wins to his name however, the Dane is some way off. Jasper Philipsen took four stage wins at the 2023 edition of the Tour, increasing his tally to six victories. As seen by the Belgian's struggles in 2024 however, it's not always easy to keep winning multiple stages every year.
In fact, other than Pogacar, no active rider has been able to reach double figures in stage wins. So in summary, the evidence seems to suggest that Cavendish is set to hold the record for a very long while. Could Pogacar break it possibly, but even if he does that seems some way off at this point.
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- Pidcock is starting to sound like Froome now.Sweep18-11-2024
- I think this was because there were junior women in the race. If a race has junior women am pretty sure it has to be less than 45 minutes. I believe a rule is coming in for next season that will fine organisers that don't put on a junior women's race a fine equivalent to the prize money. So fingers crossed we should see more longer elite and junior women's races from next season.NorrisHippocampe18-11-2024
- Of course he CAN. Big salary in cycling is not when you win but when they talk about you (and your team / sponsors). For every news about Jonas, MVdP or Wout there are 10 times more(!) news about Pidcock (like everyday for last 2 months?). Since cycling is advertising sport not competitive sport (in terms of from money comes from) Pidcock is winner and GOAT - change my mind. ;-)averagecyclist18-11-2024
- Why do the women CXs keep getting short changed with the length of theor races? They could have easily done another lap to put them at 50 minutes which is their time limit. Yet another CX race where they fail to reach this when they had a chance to. Come on ... the math isn't that hard to figure out lap times and divide into 50 min!frieders318-11-2024
- All pro cyclists are massively underpaid! The amount of riding and physical exertion they put their bodies through is crazy compared to other sports. I can't think of any other sport where you are physically active at a very high level of power output for hours on end each day.Pogboom17-11-2024
- When I was working for Starkist/Heinz my manager quit. So the next week my group was put under another manager. During our first meeting he asked if there was anything we needed to tell him. I said that I would be out the following week on vacation. He said "I don't know if I can let you go on vacation". I replied, "You can't tell if I can go. You can only tell me if I can come back".Sweep17-11-2024
- :-)Sweep17-11-2024
- What a mess there :-)
DareDevil17-11-2024