Mark Cavendish duly won the 15th stage of this year's Tour de France at Montpellier, although it was quite tight from a rapidly closing Tyler Farrar. This victory takes him to a remarkable 19 stage wins in just four editions of the Tour and puts him 7th now in the all time stage winners list with François Faber, who won his 19 stages in five editions of the Tour between 1908 and 1914, winning the Tour in 1909.
Includes recent stage wins.
The most Tour de France stage victories: the top 13
34: Eddy Merckx (Bel)
28: Bernard Hinault (Fr)
25: André Leducq (Fr)
22: Lance Armstrong (USA)
22: André Darrigade (Fr) (sprinter)
20: Nicolas Frantz (Lux)
19: Mark Cavendish (UK)
19: François Faber (Lux)
17: Jean Alavoine (Fr)
16: Jacques Anquetil (Fr)
16: René Le Grèves (Fr)
16: Charles Pelissier (Fr)
15: Freddy Maertens, (Bel)
Mark's win in Montpellier plus the 10 points he picked up at the intermediate sprint helps to consolidate his hold on the Green Jersey. He now has 319 points, with Rojas on 282 and Gilbert on 248. Gilbert launched an unsuccessful attack with three kilometres to so, which meant that he failed to score any points in the final sprint. Rojas was 5th.
Although the race now heads into the Alps Mark has a good chance of holding on to Green as there are still points on several of the intermediate sprints he should be able to pick up. He must, also, be considered the likely stage winner in Paris next Sunday gaining further points.
2 comments:
Jim, your palmares clearly indicates that being married to a laundry-enthusiastic wife is key to success in bicycle racing. Claudine Merck used to star in a publicity spot on the telly, where she used to ejaculate with horror: “By Jove, I’m out of washing powder! Quick, Eddy, sprint to the supermarket and bring me back a bucket of ..... (name witheld).”
And so he became the “cannibale”.
Luc A wonderfully illuminating comment, which puts Eddy's extraordinary success into an entirely new light.
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