Well, that’s all from us after a historic day for Cavendish and the Tour. Thanks for reading, as ever. Til next time.
Stephen Park, British Cycling’s performance director, has also heaped praise on the man of the hour. “On behalf of British Cycling I would like to congratulate Sir Mark on a truly outstanding achievement,” he said.
“It goes without saying that Mark is one of the greatest British riders of all time, and to cap off his final season of racing with another victory at the sport’s biggest race is a fitting final chapter in a glittering career.”
Mark Renshaw, Astana Qazaqstan’s sprint coach, is similarly delighted. “Look, the guys nailed that,” he told ITV after the race. “[Cavendish] is just a fine wine. He just gets better and better. I think the team had so much confidence in him, they’ve had confidence all year.”
Vasilis Anastopoulos, head of performance at Cavendish’s Astana Qazaqstan team, is understandably over the moon. “You know it has been so many months of hard training with so many setbacks,” he said. “We spent three months in Greece from 2 April, every day believing and every day training. We went to Turkey and it was like he was done, gone, he’s not going to sprint, but we kept believing. We brought him back to Greece and had some really good sessions and were optimistic, but on the first day he had heat stroke so we thought we had done something wrong, but he did it again.
“We had a plan and stuck to it. Everyone knew exactly what to do. We made a calculation on what pace to follow. He was super strong at the end. He was the old Cavendish.”
Tadej Pogacar has revealed what Cavendish said to him after the race as the pair shared a hug. “Incredible. A 35th victory for Mark. He came to me and said don’t break the record, but I don’t think I can.”
Luke Rowe, the Ineos Grenadiers rider, appears to be lost for words.
Msbencavwusofmh35wkamshdh
— Luke Rowe (@LukeRowe1990) July 3, 2024
Here’s Cavendish getting his medal. It’s suitably big and shiny.
🥇 A 35th medal for an all-time record
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 3, 2024
🥇 Une 35 ème médaille pour un record historique#TDF2024 | @Continental_fr pic.twitter.com/O8rf2ZgAcW
Cavendish was a Guardian columnist once upon a time, lest we forget. Here’s what he had to say after his first stage win in the 2008 Tour de France at Châteauroux:
Tim Morton emails in with an observation: “Incredible bunny hop over the crashed rider behind Cav’s win.”
Christian Prudhomme, the Tour de France race director, is next to offer his congratulations. Asked what Cavendish’s victory means to him, he says: “A big smile … 35, everyone has a smile today, even Eddy Merckx of course.
“It’s a 15-year career, the best sprinter in the history of the Tour. He already was the best sprinter, he’s much more now. It’s just unbelievable, nobody believed in him now, everybody thought it was too late but him, and today he won. It’s just wonderful, wonderful. It’s a wonderful story, but I remember that stage in 2018 in La Rosière when he was alone back behind everybody and he knew it was over for the Tour that year. But he went on, he went on, and he arrived alone. I thought seven years ago it was his last day in the Tour, and he’s still here, and he’s the best.”
Peter Walker, the Guardian’s senior political correspondent, has taken a moment away from the general election campaign trail to laud Cavendish’s achievement.
I know there’s a lot of news around today - and a lot of sports news - but this is one of the greatest achievements by a British athlete, ever. I’m so happy he’s done it. https://t.co/HrglAtaPeL
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) July 3, 2024
Ineos Grenadiers, Thomas’s team, have sent their congratulations to Cavendish, too.
The whole cycling world right now! 😃
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) July 3, 2024
The sprinting GOAT! Congrats @MarkCavendish 3⃣5⃣ pic.twitter.com/e15M3KbDkZ
Will Magee here, taking in the post-race reaction. Geraint Thomas has been talking to ITV about Cavendish’s win, paying tribute to the Manx Missile. “It’s unbelievable, super happy for him,” he said. “To continue to do what he does at his age, 39, everyone says you get slower as you get older but he’s proved that wrong really.
“He always suffers, he always has a bad day in the mountains or whatever, but I always knew he could get through it with a good team around him and committed to him. He just has to be there and see the finish line, you know? Then he’s always got a shout for the win. It’s unbelievable and great that he’s officially got that record alone now, not sharing it with anyone, so chapeau.”
Our picture editors have picked out some of Cavendish’s best-ever Tour de France stage wins because, you know, he’s had 35 of them. There are some cracking shots here.
I’m going to hand over to Will Magee to bring you the rest of the reaction to this historic loveliness. Goodbye.
Updated
There were some touching moments immediately after the race when Cav’s sprint rivals kept searching him out to give him such lovely heart-felt congratulations. Biniam Girmay, who won his first-ever stage earlier this week, burst in on him post-TV interview to give him a big hug. Lovely stuff.
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Here’s the video of Cavendish’s historic sprint win. Enjoy!
🏛️ A sprint for 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/jg731Qnt2G
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 3, 2024
Some reaction from readers now:
“Unbelievable – what’s the French for ‘Sacrebleu’?” – Kieran Monaghan.
“Thank you, your correspondent’s worthy analysis (sorry, James Cavell) of how Sir Cav couldn’t possibly win made that win even sweeter” – Tony Russell.
“WOOOOOOHOOOOOO. YAY CAV” – anonymous.
Cavendish: 'I'm in disbelief'
I’m in disbelief. It was a big gamble coming in trying to win. It was a big gamble for my boss trying to come to the Tour de France for this. You have to go all in. We did it. We worked at what we had to do. How we built the team. Every little detail. You can see what it means. It doesn’t mean we are going to be top of the UCI rankings but the Tour de France is bigger than everything. The first day was bad but it normally takes me days to get into it. I’ve done 15 Tour de Frances now. I don’t like to suffer but you work at it and things still have to go your way. We didn’t nail it as a team as we wanted to do [on this stage] and the boys improvised and got me in position and I got on to whatever train I had to do.”
Updated
Cyclists from other teams all want a hug with the history-maker. What a legend. After that first stage when he struggled with heatstroke, it was hard to imagine this 35th win was ever going to happen. He’s 39 years old. He’s still electric. He’s the Millennium Falcon on wheels. Here’s our snap report:
Cavendish is just hugging every single one of his teammates and drinking it all in. He wears a smile as wide as the Irish Sea and is just walking round lit up. Bol, his teammate, says: “He fucking nailed it!” He really did.
Updated
That was incredible! Cavendish picked his line and followed it through, finding space on the left and then bursting out from the pack as we have seen so often before and carrying it through to the line. Unbelievable!
Updated
Mark Cavendish wins record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage!
Cavendish breaks from the pack and stamps down on his pedals … and the Manx Missile has done it! The 39-year-old rolls back the years and spins his legs furiously to pip his sprint rivals to the line on stage five and make history. He holds his arms aloft and then cups his disbelieving face in his hands. Such emotion. What an achievement. He leaves the great Eddy Merckx behind him on 34 stage wins. He’s completed “Project 35”. Enjoy the moment, Mark!
Updated
700m: The pace picks up and Cavenish is in sixth place, pedalling furiously but not yet at full pace …
1.5km: Girmay has come up near the front and Cavendish is right in the middle jostling for position. This is a great chance for Cav.
2.3km: Intermarche’s riders take the leading group round a sharp right corner. They’re safely round it and Cavendish is in a good position.
4km: Team Visma is up at the front but the lead keeps switching hands as everyone has a go at grinding the gears at the front. They’re through the safe zone now, too. Time to shine, sprinters!
6km: Pogacar has moved up towards the front to stay out of trouble as the peloton moves round a bit of road furniture. All the teams are still up there and everyone is still in contention.
8km: The peloton is stretching out with each team trying to keep together. Astana –Cavendish’s team – lost position at the front but move up on the right hand side to recover.
10km: The riders are nearing Saint-Vulbas and are going at a fair pace now. There’s a possible crosswind on an open stretch of road so they bunch up a bit to protect their main men. Meanwhile, the radios keep buzzing with the same message to “move up”.
13km: It hasn’t been the most eventful race but let’s hope we have some excitement at the end. The Lidl sport director has just been on the radio and boasted proudly that Mads Pedersen is “super strong” and there are “sprinters with tired legs out there” so “stay at the front”. He makes it sound like Mads is going to cruise it. All those radios are probably abuzz with similar messages. “You’ve got this in the bag, lads” etc.
16km: The conditions have improved dramatically since they’ve come back down that little hill. The rain has stopped and it looks much brighter. There’s still a near-calamity in the peloton when a bone-headed spectator steps into the road to take a photo and almost takes out a few riders. People!
19km: The pace is building up as we near the end – and fair play to sprint contender Alexander Christoff, who has made up a minute to get back into the main pack after his mishap on the descent earlier.
21km: Here’s a picture of Thomas Gachignard getting some medical assistance from a skilful support team member. It always amazes me how team members can provide such specific and nimble support while hanging out of a moving car.
25km: Christophe Laporte is the next rider to take a tumble on the slick surface. He came off on a traffic island but, thankfully for him – and his teammate and GC contender Jonas Vingegaard – he is back up quickly and pedalling like mad to get back up with the peloton.
27km: The pace picks up as the riders speed down the descent on the Côte de Lhuis. One sprinter who probably won’t be in contention for today’s stage is Uno-X Mobility’s Alexander Christoff. He appears to have slipped off his bike on the way down. He’s OK but needs to get himself together and getting back to the peloton will take it out of him.
32km: James Cavell is here with an email Sir Cav fans might not want to read: “Watching both Dutch and Belgian coverage of the Tour I get the impression the idea that ‘everyone’ wants a Cavendish stage win is a little wide of the mark. In fact, it isn’t as though they don’t want a Cavendish victory, it’s just that it’s not something that is viewed as very likely. It’s almost like being 39 and getting dropped whenever the road heads uphill might be a sign of not being in the kind of form needed to win a Tour sprint stage. If you’re getting dropped on climbs that last five to 20 minutes, it means your threshold and maximum aerobic capacity power to weight ratio is inadequate. While sprinting is a totally different phenomenon, the final 10km of any sprint stage is all about threshold and max aerobic capacity, then having the ability to produce 1200 watts plus for a few seconds at the end of that. ‘Experience’ isn’t going to compensate for deficiencies in fitness. Sadly, I feel that Cavendish simply isn’t going to be able to get near enough to the front, or have the gas left over to produce any sort of sprint.” Well, he has made it over that little bump easily enough but there is plenty of road left before the finish and some iffy weather, too.
Updated
35km: The plucky pair have been swallowed up by the peloton and every team appears to be up at the front now. Jonas Abrahamsen speeds away to get some points in the race for the polkadot jersey (king of the mountains) and then drops back again.
36km to go: Every team director is getting on the radio to tell their riders to get to the “second line” – so just off the front – and hold position. From what I can make out Astana have a little huddle there and UAE have presence too.
37km to go: Matteo Vercher and Clément Russo are only 18 seconds in front of the peloton now. Their race is run. Good effort, lads. They’ve just started the climb up the Côte de Lhuis. If the pace is particularly fast it could drain the legs of pure sprinters such as Cavendish.
Updated
42km to go: It really is raining cats and dogs out there now and the roads are holding on to the water more than is helpful. There are puddles and spray everywhere. Astana sports director, Mark Renshaw, has just given instructions to his team to start heading up to the front to get in a good position for the leadout for Cavendish. They are approaching the category four Côte de Lhuis (34km) and don’t want to fall back.
Updated
46km to go: Uh oh. It’s raining now. It could be a sketchy finish in Saint-Vulbas. Riders are grabbing rain jackets or flinging them to the side because they can’t be bothered with them. Would be a decent souvenir if you were watching on.
Updated
49km to go: Mads Pedersen keeps hold of the green jersey after taking 15 points in that intermediate sprint, with his nearest rival, Biniam Girmay, taking 11. It’s very early days, mind.
Updated
53km to go: One of the two riders in the breakaway, Russo, rolls over the intermediate sprint in first place but, in truth, it was uncontested with Vercher. The gap back to the peloton has narrowed to 1min11sec. The plucky pair are being eaten up.
Updated
55km to go: Pello Bilbao was caught up in that tumble. The Bahrain rider doesn’t look happy as he races back up the road but you can’t really blame Pogacar. He himself had his view blocked by riders who were veering late to avoid the bollard.
Updated
59km to go: There’s a crash in the peloton! And it was the man in the yellow jersey, Tadej Pogacar, who caused it. The pace of the race had picked up and his vision was blocked by some riders as he approached a traffic bollard. He skidded round it but caused a number of riders to fall behind him as they were spooked by his sudden movement. The early indications are that everyone is back up and riding at pace, with just one cyclist requiring a bike change. Lucky escape by Pogacar.
Updated
Afternoon! So are we braced for a sprint finish? Mark Cavendish certainly is. I’ve just heard that he’s ditched his £1000 aero socks for this stage in favour of a more relaxed, comfortable approach. Perhaps he’s wearing an M&S pair from a cheap and cheerful pack of seven.
Updated
And as we go climbing (ish) it’s time for me to hand over to Gregg Bakowski who’ll pedal you home from here.
74km to go: The first categorised climb, at the Cote du Cheval Blanc, approaches with the front two of Russo and Vercher seeing their lead now dipping below three minutes (currently around 2:50) and rain/mizzle beginning to fall. Behind them Alpecin are striving hard for the green jersey. Tim Declerq of Lidl-Trek is also prominent at the front of the pack working for Mads Pederson. Jonas Vingegaard is among them too.
84km to go: “Is today the day for Sir Cav?” wonders Lee Jeremy. “I find watching sprints so stressful at the best of times but now I am now Super nervous. By the way, have you noticed how our continental colleagues seem to think everything is Super – Super hard stage, Super happy to win, Pogi was Super every other sentence last night. Much under used term in our vernacular but obvs not on the continent – I blame Brexit!”
Given that, on the subject of polls, we’re currently being bombarded with the erroneous term “super-majority”, I’m not so sure about that.
But anyway, a big day indeed for Sir Cav, who’s still tucked into the pack after some early technical readjustments. It’s a big summer for retiring or near-retirement UK sporting greats, what with Jimmy Anderson and Andy Murray going out with varying degrees of impact.
Updated
88km to go: There is a little fourth-category climb coming up, at the Côte du Cheval Blanc, in about 15 kilometres’ time – a 1.5km ascent on a 4.3% gradient – which should offer different challenges. For now, the front two remain 3:25ish ahead of the pack.
96km to go: The official site tells us Russo and Vercher covered 39.2km in the second hour of the race – an average of 38.4 km/h since the start of the stage. They’re still holding steady at a 3:30 lead over the peloton, having been together out front for around 50km now.
In the meantime, let’s roll back the years for some vintage Partridge on the Tour.
102km to go: It’s raining further up today’s course, which might mean the late stages and the intermediate sprint are as twitchy and cautious as the early stages have been sedate and conservative. The gap between front two and peloton is now down to 3:25
107km to go: The gap between the top two of Russo and Vercher has just dipped below four minutes as they hit the narrower urban streets of Chambéry, scene of Greg LeMond’s 1989 world championship triumph, and I’m going to talk that up as significant in the absence of much else at the minute. It’s around 3:46.
Updated
114km to go: “Good afternoon.” Good afternoon William Peyton. “After yesterday’s thrilling mountainside heroics, one imagines the GC teams will enjoy a pax romana today. Unless there’s been a nefarious pact between them and the more sprint focused outfits to control the pace later on. But who really knows about the politics of the peleton, the machinations in the massifs, the bylaws of the bunch?
“Either way, it should be a relaxing jaunt, and only near the end will we see something a stomp, and one hopes it is Cavendish over the line first. As everyone surely does. Good day to sell tenterhooks.”
You’re not wrong so far. There’s a great sitcom/art-house film to be made set entirely in a peloton.
118km to go: Russo and Vercher will I’m sure be reeled in at some point but no one’s inclined to yet so the locally based pair are giving it a good old go amid the beautiful foothills scenery of their home region. They lead the peloton by 4:22.
124km to go: Still no major developments, with local lads Russo and Vercher around 4mins 40sec up the road from the peloton, which is being controlled at its front by Declercq and Dillier. The main sprinters still being kept under wraps.
Updated
130km to go: The riders covered a modest 37.8km in that first hour. It’ll liven up …
135km to go: Russo and Vercher are still alone up the road, now more than four minutes ahead of a pack fronted by Marc Soler and Tim Wellens of UAE Team Emirates. In general though we’re still shadow-boxing/treading water/insert alternative sporting metaphor of your choice here.
140km to go: A Pogacar meanwhile is perched near the front of the peloton but taking things easy, laughing and chatting with fellow riders as the breakaway pair’s gap to the rest now extends to three minutes
144km to go: Mattéo Vercher has also jumped out of the pack to join Russo, with the peloton now more around 1:50 behind the leaders. Both riders are not unfamiliar with these roads, being local to the Lyon area
Updated
146.4km to go: A little bit of attacking as the Frenchman Clément Russo of Groupama–FDJ hits the front and opens up a gap on the peloton of around 30 seconds as they zip through a busy and enthusiastic village.
152km to go: A group of three make a go of forging ahead of the pack but it’s not sustained, and it’s all pretty much as you were. The pace picking up a tad though.
158km to go: Amid a nice overhead shot of Le Chateau de Épierre, the small group fronted by Van der Poel is absorbed back into the pack, which is fronted now by Tim Declercq of Lidl-Trek, Pogacar tucked in not far behind him. All still pretty sedate …
Updated
164km to go: And Van der Poel hits the front for now, in a group of six riders, as the pace picks up on a slight downhill stretch, and Ayuso and Lazkano are sucked back into the peloton, which itself is now strung out.
Updated
166km to go: It’s not ideal that the intermediate sprint is so late on this stage, in terms of giving us some early excitement and movement, as the peloton spreads out with Van de Poel at its front, a mere 12 seconds or so behind the front pair.
Cav could do without this …
🛠️ Minor adjustments needed for @MarkCavendish
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 3, 2024
🛠️ Petits ajustements nécessaires pour @MarkCavendish #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/jiLL45cD1F
169km to go: A couple of riders, Juan Ayuso and Oier Lazkano, have carved out a 45-second or so gap on the peloton but no one else is minded to respond at this point. It’s been a predictably slow start into these headwinds, as we hear a bit of team radio banter from Intermarché–Wanty to Kobie Goosens imploring him to shift himself up the road.
172km to go: No early breaks yet, unsurprisingly, as they take a pleasant amble by the river.
177.5km to go: so they’re off to Saint-Vulbas. Green jersey holder Abrahamsen plonking himself in the front part of the peloton
Updated
The riders are now making their way out through the agreeable looking streets of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne …
There’ll be a wind factor to deal with on today’s stage too, as well as possible rain. And here’s William Fotheringham’s stage guide:
Stage five, Wednesday 3 July: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas, 177.5km
A run out of the Alps through Chambéry, home of the Decathlon-Ag2R team since its foundation in 1992. This should be a second sprint stage, and Decathlon will be fired up to launch their Irish sprinter Sam Bennett, set to return to the Tour for the first time since 2020. He’s won four sprints this year but whether he has the legs of last year’s points winner, Jasper Philipsen, remains to be seen.
And as we emerge from the mountains, those polka dot jersey standings:
🔴 ⚪️ TOP 5️⃣
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 3, 2024
First at the Galibier @TamauPogi closes in on @AbraJonas.
Passé en tête au Galibier @TamauPogi se rapproche d'@AbraJonas. #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/1gyNLOuHlm
A recap on what happened yesterday, and Pogacar’s assumption of that yellow jersey.
Preamble
Morning everyone. So, is this going to be a procession?. Tadej Pogacar has looked as authoritative as he ever has in this Tour so far and yesterday’s stage win, in which the Slovenian left his rival and last year’s winner, Jonas Vingegaard, for dust late on in the mountains, laid down the most emphatic of markers. Pogacar’s 45-second lead over Remco Evenepoel, and his 50sec one over Vingegaard, already looks a tall order.
But anyway, today we’ve got a sprint to look forward to at a flat finish, in the first stage so far that begins and ends in France, and another chance for Mark Cavendish to do something after some frustrating early stages. The Manxman struggled in the searing heat at the weekend but it shouldn’t be quite so hot today with possibly a bit of rain forecast. As well as Cavendish, expect some focus on Ireland’s Sam Bennett, of the Decathlon team, who’s also had some frustrations thus far, not least in stage three’s carnage.
This is also another stage that sees a try-out of the new adjustments to safety protocols, with the 3km “safety zone” at the end of the stage increased to 4km.
How they stand
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 19:06:38
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal - Quick-Step +45
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Team Visma - Lease a Bike +50
4. Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Team Emirates +1:10
5. Primo* Roglic (Slo) Red Bull - BORA - +1:14
hansgrohe
6. Carlos Rodríguez (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers +1:16
7. Mikel Landa (Spa) Soudal - Quick-Step +1:32
8. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates “
9. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl - Trek +3:20
10. Egan Bernal (Col) INEOS Grenadiers +3:21
