Cavendish wants Merckx's Tour de France stage win record

Sport360 staff 13:08 30/06/2017
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  • Mark Cavendish.

    Mark Cavendish has insisted he “always knew” he was “the best” even as a new generation of sprinters threatened his dominance in the Tour de France.

    Cavendish is four Tour stage wins shy of Eddy Merckx’s all-time record of 34 going into this year’s edition, which starts in Dusseldorf on Saturday.

    The 32-year-old Team Dimension Data star won 21 Tour stages between 2008 and 2011, at least five each year, but his crown slipped in recent years.

    He won two stages of a 2013 Tour in which the sprints were dominated by the younger Marcel Kittel, crashed out of the 2014 edition on the opening stage in Harrogate, and then won one stage in 2015 as veteran Andre Greipel piled up victories.

    But he was back to his best last year, winning four stages and wearing the famous yellow jersey for the first time before leaving early to focus on the Olympics.

    Many had written the Manxman off during the leaner years, but he said he never doubted his ability.

    “Even when these young guys were coming through and were beating me here and there, I always knew I was still the best,” he said on The Clare Balding Show on BT Sport. “I proved that last year. I don’t want people to think last year was a fluke.”

    Although Cavendish is now tantalisingly close to Merckx’s record, he may struggle to close in this summer as he comes into the race on the back of a long battle with the Epstein-Barr virus which threatened his participation until the last minute.

    “I think I could be fit enough to ride in the Tour. Whether I’m fit enough to win anything is a different thing,” he said.

    However, he may have plenty more opportunities to keep trying as he hinted that he will keep racing at least until 2020.

    Cavendish won silver in the Omnium in Rio last year, breaking his Olympic duck, but will surely fancy a crack at the 2020 Games when his favoured Madison returns to the programme.

    “The Madison I’ve been world champion three times, no-one has won it more than three times,” he said.

    “We should have won it in Beijing, then they took the Madison out for the next two Olympics. It’s back in now. It’s the event I love the most.”

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