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Mark Cavendish sits up and raises his hands as he wins a record-setting 35th Tour de France stage. His mouth is open wide in a euphoric shout.

TdF stage 5 report: Cavendish gets his record-setting win

Mark Cavendish takes his 35th career stage victory at the Tour de France.

Dane Cash
by Dane Cash 03.07.2024 Photography by
Gruber Images & Cor Vos
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Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) now stands alone among Tour de France stage winners. The 39-year-old Manxman sprinted to his 35th career Tour stage win on Wednesday’s stage 5, putting him ahead of Eddy Merckx with a new record for all-time stage wins at the Tour.

Cavendish deftly navigated a messy bunch kick in Saint-Vulbas, launching off of the wheel of Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) with 150 meters to go. He quickly surged to the front and held off Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceunick) and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) to take a convincing victory.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) finished safely in the peloton to maintain his grip on the overall lead.

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How it happened

“The boys improvised and got me there in the best position and I shot onto whatever train was going.”

—Mark Cavendish after his win

Brief analysis

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Stage 6 will take the peloton 163.5 km from Mâcon to Dijon and since a Cat 4 just 10 km into the stage is the only categorized climb of the day, it should be another opportunity for the sprinters. After a roundabout just inside the final kilometer, they will have a straight run to the line for the last several hundred meters. The speeds will be high.

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