To paraphrase the 2011 baseball film Moneyball, 'It's hard not to be romantic about cycling'. A full 17 years after first turning a pedal in anger at the Tour de France, and having, just in the past three years, battled through illness, crashes, and non-selection, Mark Cavendish has claimed the all-time Tour de France stage win record.
For nigh on half a century, Eddy Merckx's record of 34 stages stood untouchable at the top of the pile, with Bernard Hinault on 28 the only rider to make it vaguely close to the Belgian's mammoth total.
