It was 17 years ago that sprinting great Mark Cavendish started his Tour de France career with a time trial in the streets of London in the 2007 race. Early on Sunday afternoon, after a record-breaking 35 stage wins, the British fastman completed his 15th and final Tour on the streets of Nice with, again, another time trial.
The second starter of the hilly 33.5-kilometre race against the clock from Monaco to Nice, the Astana Qazaqstan rider rolled down the start ramp at 14:41:30 local time, 90 seconds after teammate Davide Ballerini had opened the afternoon’s racing.
With his 35th stage win captured in the first week and then the last sprint on Tuesday in Nîmes, Cavendish’s final challenge in the Tour de France was to finish the race. And after successfully completing the toughest obstacles of three hard days in the Alps, the last TT was the last, much easier, hurdle to cross en route to doing that, but a hurdle nonetheless.
Cavendish finally came home on the last day of the Tour de France in a time of 54 minutes and 38 seconds, but although he had gone all out on the first part of the course to ensure he made the cut, the time he clocked barely mattered. As the rousing cheers of the crowds along the Promenade des Anglais and Place Massena made clear, as well as the dozens of wellwishers waiting outside the Astana team area, this was their last chance to pay Cavendish homage on the roads of the Tour de France - and they were determined to give him the greatest sendoff possible.
After a wave at the crowd in the last kilometre, lengthy hugs with his family at the finish line, and with one last return to the Tour de France winner’s podium for a special ceremony still awaiting him to honour his achievements, Cavendish spoke to the press about what the final stage had meant to him.
“I think I got most of the emotions out of the way yesterday [Saturday],” Cavendish said, referring to the tears he shed on crossing the finish line at the Col de la Couillole, where he had battled against the time cut in the mountains - and won - for one final occasion in the Tour de France.
“I kind of enjoyed today. OK I couldn´t go easy, I knew if I got to the top of the climb by a certain point I’d be all right for the time limit, so I just could do that, then I could just really enjoy it. Enjoy counting down the kilometres, see the flamme rouge for the last time, and see my family across the finish line - it was very, very nice.”
With his place in the Tour’s history books now guaranteed, and due to finish as lanterne rouge in the race overall, Cavendish took his time when asked what he thought of the last three weeks and what he had achieved, before stating simply, “I’m incredibly happy".
“There are 11 teams that will leave the Tour without a win,” he said, this assuming one of the previously successful squads would take another later on Sunday, of course. "[but] we got the win, and we got the win we wanted, which is important.
“Like everything, you live a rollercoaster in the Tour, you bond together as a group and you enjoy the successes and the hard times together. I was so lucky to have a group round me here, that we could get through and achieve the success we wanted and arrive here at Nice to celebrate.”
With no final stage on the Champs Elysées, Cavendish said that it was strange for him to experience his last day of the Tour without pressure.
“We went back to the hotel yesterday, I just wanted to be with the boys and the team, have a relaxing dinner, sat and talked after that and that was it, really. So it was relaxed for today but I still had a job to do.”
Asked if this really was his last race, Cavendish took another lengthy pause before answering, “Likely so, yeah".
After completing the round of interviews, Cavendish headed to the team bus with his family, with dozens of wellwishers standing opposite to greet him. Also present at the Astana bus was team manager Alexander Vinokourov, whose signing of Cavendish at the last minute in 2022 made breaking the Tour stage record previously held equally with Eddy Merckx a possibility.
“Getting that 35th stage was our goal, our dream,” Vinokourov told Cyclingnews. “It´s also great that we got here to Nice, all the way here… Just watching Mark ride that last kilometre was really moving to see.
“And just seeing the way he sprinted too, to get that 35th win, after all the hard work that went into it - that was something very special. It’s a dream come true, and this way Mark has no regrets, either - it’s magnificent.”
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