The Moment, the seeds of a journey that were first planted some 16 years ago, happened along a nondescript industrial road with forest on one side and an overgrown grass field on the other, a kilometre away from a village of 1,200 inhabitants that until it hosted the Tour de France for the first ever time, was just like the many thousands of other small routine French settlements: largely forgettable.
But as the sun burned through the clouds that had given rain earlier in the afternoon, Saint-Vulbas was about to become synonymous with history. The Moment came at 17:38 CET on July 3, 2024, when Mark Cavendish surged through a crowded peloton, darting right and then left, and charged towards history, a 35th victory in the Tour de France, surpassing the record he had shared with Eddy Merckx for the past three years.
A few hundred metres back, where the recently-asphalted road gradually bent to the right, one of Cavendish’s principal helpers, Davide Ballerini, a man who delivered him to four Tour stage victories in 2021, slammed on his brakes and parked up at the side of the barriers. His work was done, and he was now like the millions of fans watching around the world. “I stopped riding at 300 metres to the finish and looked up at the TV screen,” the Italian told Cycling Weekly.
“I didn’t get off my bike, but I braked and stood there by myself to see the finish. At first I could see he was blocked in, something happened but I don’t know what. Then in the final when he started he did a really good sprint.”
Across the globe, fans drew a sharp intake of breath for Project 35 was about to be completed by the 39-year-old. “I was looking at the screen and when he won I was screaming with all the other people,” recalled Ballerini. “From December we were thinking about this moment, and now this moment has arrived. We are really happy. We had to keep fighting to be there because we knew that Cav was coming back – and now he is really back.”
Along the barrier after the finish line, Cavendish’s wife, Peta, waited anxiously with four of their children. She clutched the youngest over her right shoulder, and when her husband crossed the line first, let out a piercing roar. “Oh my God. He fucking did it,” she shouted, scanning to keep an eye on her children, who all jumped around with excitement.
The whole family then hurdled the barriers, and made their way towards the bustle of photographers. “Daddy! Daddy!” Cavendish’s eldest daughter called. When he heard, he opened his arms to part the cameras, and, with a beaming smile, welcomed them into the chaos.
A melee of photographers, journalists, riders and well-wishers ensued and endured for 10 minutes, but several kilometres back down the parcours, probably in the department of Isère and not yet having crossed Le Rhône into Ain, was Cavendish’s DS and long-time leadout man, Mark Renshaw.
When The Moment came, he and his three other car companions initially had no idea. “We had no TV and we didn’t know for what felt like minutes,” the Australian said, “but it was maybe 20 seconds after when we found out. We didn’t get to see any of it, we just saw a couple of images now [15 minutes later] and it looks like they did an amazing job. We are really proud of the guys.”
Renshaw was brought into Astana-Qazaqstan last summer and has been essential in the construction of a dedicated leadout train around the Manx Missile that included the signings of Ballerini, Michael Mørkøv and coach Vasilis Anastopoulous. “I’m not a cocky guy but I was confident,” Renshaw smiled. “That was pure Cavendish. That final 100 metres was Cav from 2009, 2010, 2011, you saw the zip he had, attacking to the left – it was class.
“To come back from his crash last year… I never doubted him because he’s shocked me too many times before. There were no doubts on my behalf, Vasilis has spent hours and hours working on training plans and I don’t think the team had any doubt either.” He added: “Cav is a fine wine.”
At the end of 2020, Cavendish broke down in tears at Gent-Wevelgem, fearing that, without a contract for the following season, he had just ridden his last professional race. He signed a bare-bones contract with Deceuninck Quick-Step and won four stages and the green jersey at the 2021 Tour, moving him from 30 stage wins to 34. That year, his boss was Patrick Lefevere, and in Saint-Vulbas the veteran manager was just as ecstatic, if not more, as when the Manxman was winning his seven stages for Quick-Step.
“We were in the bus and everyone was yelling like it was one of our riders winning,” Lefevere said. “When we saw that Mark won everyone in the bus was like 'Argh’ and screaming. I’m proud and I’m happy for him because I think we were part of this history – when nobody wanted him anymore, I took him back and he took four victories in one year.”
A tranquil nothing-happens-here kind of outpost will never again be just-another-quiet-village that comes into the consciousness on a zoomed-in map. A plaque and a statue are surely to be erected at the site in Saint-Vulbas, where a cycling legend entered immortality, where The Moment finally, at long last, happened.
Will the record stop at 35? “We still have a sprint tomorrow, don’t we?” Renshaw said of stage six. “I’ve seen a confident Cavendish and to bet against him not taking another one would be a big call.”
