The most popular win of 2024 🙌 Fellow riders were queuing up to congratulate Mark Cavendish on his record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage win.
"We have nine more or less flat stages!" - Jens Voigt expects Mark Cavendish to postpone retirement again for Tour de France swansong in 2025
CyclingThursday, 31 October 2024 at 10:42
Mark Cavendish already has his place in Tour de France folklore confirmed. One of the most synonymous names of the modern era of cycling's most iconic race, the Manx Missile took a record breaking 35th stage victory in 2024, moving clear of the legendary Eddy Merckx. Despite the last two editions of the Tour de France having been posed as Cavendish's final one, could he yet come back for more?
Well, after the reveal of the route and profile for the 2025 edition, Eurosport pundit and 17-time Tour de France competitor in his own right, Jens Voigt, the chances of Cavendish postponing retirement yet again may have gone up drastically over the last 24 hours or so.
"The 2025 Tour is pretty standard in terms of overall lengths and the amount of flat and hilly stages and mountain-top finishes," the 53-year-old German previews in conversation with Eurosport. "One change is that we have nine more or less flat stages until the first really tough stage (Stage 10) in the Massif Central. That does invite Cav to go one more time, to try to win more stages and to try to hold off the chasing stage hunter Pogacar!"
As mentioned, Cavendish broke the long standing record of the legendary Eddy Merckx this summer with a 35th victory on stage 5 in Saint Vulbas. As touched upon by Voigt there though, the rampant Tadej Pogacar is already hunting the Astana Qazaqstan Team sprinter down having added a further six stage successes to his palmares in 2024 en route to the Maillot Jaune, taking his all-time tally of Tour de France stages to 17. If the Slovenian keeps this up, Cavendish's record may already be at threat in just a few years time. As such, could the lure of 'Project 36' drag Cavendish back one final crack at more Tour de France success?
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