Greatness recognises greatness, and there is no respect lost between cycling legends Eddy Merckx and Mark Cavendish. On the evening that Cavendish secured his 35th Tour de France stage win, thereby breaking Merckx’s record for the most Tour de France stages, the 79-year-old Belgian didn’t speak to the media. He did, however, take a minute to congratulate the Manx rider in a brief but warmhearted message on social media.
In an Instagram story, reposted by his son Axel Merckx, the cycling great congratulated the Manx Missile, stating:
“Congratulations to Mark Cavendish on this historic achievement! Such a nice guy to break my record.”
Merckx, widely considered the greatest cyclist of all time, has 34 stage wins to his name, which include more than just sprint stages. The so-called Cannibal won the Tour de France overall classification five times and spent an incredible 96 race days in the coveted yellow jersey.
In 2021, when Cavendish was on the brink of equaling his Tour de France stage win record, Merckx was quoted saying that he wouldn’t be losing any sleep over it.
“There’ll be no problem if Cavendish equals my record. I won’t lose any sleep over it. If he does it, I’ll congratulate him because it’s not easy to win 34 sprints,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
During that 2021 Tour de France, Cavendish, then 36 years of age and racing for Deceuninck Quick-Step, won an impressive four stage wins, including his 34th to equal Merckx.
After his contract expired that year, Cavendish joined the Astana team in 2022 but was not selected for the 2022 Tour de France. He decided to chase Merckx’s record for a final Tour de France in 2023 but crashed hard and was forced to abandon the race after stage 8.
Delaying retirement yet again, Cavendish and his sponsors pulled out all the stops for one final Tour de France in 2024, actively going for that 35th stage win. Sixteen years after winning his first Tour de France stage, Cavendish did it. At the age of 39, he securing his 35th victory on stage 5 with more opportunities still ahead in this Tour.
