Mark Cavendish Makes Tour de France History!

Mark Cavendish has done it! With 35 Tour de France wins to his name, Mark Cavendish had become the rider with the most Tour wins ever. He’s truly cemented himself as one of cycling’s greatest riders ever. Join Dan as he looks back at Cav’s rollercoaster of a career. What did you make of this historic victory?

00:00 Mark Cavendish makes history!
00:30 How did he get win number 35?
02:54 Post race interview
06:08 Mark Cavendish’s career
14:57 Chapeau Mark Cavendish

Useful Links:
Visit the GCN Shop 👉 https://gcn.eu/gcnshop
GCN Training Plans 👉 https://gcn.eu/gcntp
GCN WhatsApp Channel 👉 https://gcn.eu/GCNwhatsapp
GCN Instagram Broadcast Channel 👉 https://gcn.eu/instagrambroadcast

🎵 Music – licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵

📸 Photos – © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Sirotti Images

Brought to you by the world’s biggest cycling channel, the Global Cycling Network (GCN), GCN Racing brings you the best of the world’s bike races to your screens. So get involved, join us, and get ready to be in the thick of the action.

Engage with us on the channel and across social media – we’re here to answer every question you’ve got on cycling racing.

Facebook: https://gcn.eu/FBGCNRacing
Instagram: https://gcn.eu/IG-GCNRacing
Twitter: https://gcn.eu/TW-GCNRacing

Watch our sister channels:
Global Cycling Network – https://www.youtube.com/@gcn
GCN Tech – https://www.youtube.com/@gcntech
GCN Racing – https://www.youtube.com/@gcnracing
Global Triathlon Network – https://www.youtube.com/@gtn
GCN Italia – https://www.youtube.com/@gcnitalia
GCN en Español – https://www.youtube.com/@gcnenespanol
GCN auf Deutsch – https://www.youtube.com/@gcnaufdeutsch
GCN en Français – https://www.youtube.com/@gcnenfrancais
GCN Training – https://www.youtube.com/@GCNTraining
Global Mountain Bike Network – https://youtube.com/@gmbn
GMBN Racing – https://youtube.com/@gmbnracing
GMBN Tech – https://www.youtube.com/@gmbntech
Electric Mountain Bike Network – https://www.youtube.com/@embn

he’s only gone and done it Sir Mark Cavendish at the age of 39 has just broken his own record and surpassed that of Eddie MKS by taking a record-breaking 35th stage win at the tour to France three agonizing years after his 34 stage win in 2021 Cavendish has further etched his name into cycling’s history books setting a record that is unlikely ever to be beaten before I get on to look back at his extraordinary career I’m going to take a deep dive on the final kilometer of stage five into sanul B his team St had already spent the final 40ks or so keeping Cavendish right at the head of Affairs and out of danger that can come at a cost leaving with fewer rides to position and shelter you in the closing stages if we look at this overhead shot from 800 meters to go he does still have teammates around him ballerini is on his way backwards his job done am merco soon realizes that he’s going to be of no further help either Cavendish could still use case bow as his guide but instead goes back to what he does best using his sprinters instinct to guide him to the best Wheels Through the best gaps while saving as much energy as possible it’s at this point with 650 M to go that Cavendish manages to get himself onto yasper Philipson’s wheel although it does require the use of his shoulders to defend that position firstly against Phil bouse of bahin Victorious and a few moments later later with Fernando gavia of mobistar what’s incredible is that even once he’s on Philipson’s wheel and he sees vle launching his lead out Cavendish decides not to stay with them most sprinters would assume they’re in the best possible position given the success of the Alpin duo in recent times but here at 66 km per hour you can see he’s eyeing up that space that’s opening up to his left I’m no Sprinter but I think he’s not only looking at that space as a place to jump through out of the wind but also mindful that he doesn’t want to get pinned up against the barriers a few frames later he’s DED onto the wheel of Israel Premier Tech Pascal akan and there’s still the risk that he might get boxed in as it turns out it’s philipson who finds himself a little boxed in whilst aan opens up the space in front of Cavendish to allow him a clean run to the Finish Line as it opens up in front of him he takes a brief glance to his left to check that it’s all clear and then D to the other side of the road to ensure that those behind him aren’t getting the benefit of his slipstream the rest as they say is history philipson does eventually get onto his wheel but he doesn’t have the power to come out of the slipstream let alone pass him win number 35 and here’s what he had to say in his post-ra interview we just wanted to get the running to do it I guess you know um W me a little bit dis belief like uh you know a Stan have put a big gamble on this year to make sure we’re good here the two the France um my boss has done it yeah we uh big gam come here and try and win at least one stage you know that’s a big gamble for my boss Alex we not cut off the team to do that shows an Next bike right us and we knows what the to France is and uh know you have to go in go all in and we yeah we’ve done it we worked exactly what we wanted to do um how we built the team what I’ve done my equipment like every little detail has been kind of put towards spe specifically today you know said in Torino would be nice to Sprint but [Laughter] thank you you see what that means you see what it means like okay doesn’t mean where they’re going to be top in the UCI rankings or anything but to France is bigger than cycling isn’t it you know what I show this race you know what voo shows this race um but last year when you when you broke your shoulder uh on this on this toilet front when you were struggling on day one dropped early did you still you always believed it you always believed it yeah like first time being bad on the first day of of a bike races with a sort of friends this normally takes me days to get into it you know um I know how it works my my uh trainer and the people around me know how it is you know I’m look if everybody knew how it was everyone would be a bite Rider my job would be a lot harder wouldn’t it but uh I’ve done 15 to the Frances now I don’t like to have bad days I don’t like to suffer but I know it’s just in the head and you push you get through it and you work in it and you can have an opportunity you know things have to still go your way and yeah like we didn’t nail it as a team like we wanted to do but uh the boys improvised and got me there in the best position and I shot on to whatever train was going and uh I was able to win so but that makes you the best that mindset that mental strength that you have it’s definitely a benefit you know especially when you’re not physically as good as everybody else and it’s definitely beneficial to to be able to use your head a bit more you be the records congratulations thank you incredible and what gave me goosebumps was seeing almost every single Rider make an effort to go up and congratulate him not just teammates not just former teammates everybody showing their respect to a rider who’s won through multiple Generations so how did we or at least he get here well Cav’s pro career commenced in 2007 with T-Mobile hio Sal vdal who had worked with Cavendish as a track Rider at British cycling had taken up a role as head of development at the team mobile development program he persuaded Mark to ride for The sparkers A Team in Dortmund Germany where he raced in 2005 and six over those two seasons he picked up enough wins and results to earn himself his first pro contract and his first win didn’t take too long to come in early February at his first pro stage race he finished second on stage one despite working for his team two months later he took his first Victory as a pro and not just any win the Belgian sprinters classic scal appraise where he beat the great Robbie mccuan his childhood Idol that was followed by two wins at the Four Days of Dunkirk two more at the B of catalunia and then another at the stur electro tour taking his tally up to six and that was enough to be selected to ride the tour to France as a 22-year-old neopro uh that first tour to France wasn’t as fruitful as he’d hoped a Ninth Place on stage four after three opening stages in England was as good as it got as the race hit the mountains on stage eight he climbed off at the feed zone so it wasn’t the sort of France debut that he’d hoped for but a further six wins that year underlined his credentials as a future great his first taste of gror success came at the following Year’s due at Italia where he picked up two wins as well as gifting a further one to teammate Andre gripo it was the mansman who was chosen as a designated Sprinter at the 2008 tour though a race in which he did deliver the goods it was on stage five to chateroo that he got his first Taste Of Glory becoming the youngest ever British Rider to win a stage of the Tour of France from there things snowbo with a further three wins on stage 8 12 and 13 that tour was the first chapter of a story that would last far longer than anybody could have predicted with as many highs and lows along the way as a best-selling novel 2009 was Cavendish and his HTC mobile lead out train in their pomp a win at Milanos sunano at the first time of trying in the most nail-biting finale possible Hinrich Houser sprung an early Sprint and GA the field leaving Cavendish with no choice but to start his own Sprint early nobody came around him though and he pipped hler by millimeters at the line he took a further seven wins including three at the jir where he wore the pink jersey for the first time between Milano Sano and what would be his most successful tour to France in 2009 he was just Unstoppable six stage wins from Seven Sprint finishes including one into Oba in which the Pelon was only 40 Riders strong such was the severity of the stage that preceded the Finish he would end that year with 23 Pro wins from 86 days of racing a tally that no Rider has since been able to match now whilst Cavendish had a slower start to 2010 he got his form right for the tour five stage wins on that occasion although the green jersey eluded him once again that year also marked his first participation at the welia where his three stage wins meant he’ joined the select club of riders to have won at least one stage of every Grand Tour as well as netting him his first Grand Tour points Jersey one year later he also took five wins at the tour but there was a key difference that year for the first time in his career those stage wins were enough to see him win the green jersey it wasn’t the only Jersey of note that year either at a relatively flat world championships in Denmark that Autumn Great Britain controlled the race from start to finish and Cavendish paid them back with the rainbow jersey their first in the men’s Road Race since Tom Simpson in 1965 2011 marked the end of the road for HDC High Road the team structor he’d been with since he turned Pro it coincided though with the early years of Team Sky who snapped him up at the tour to France though it presented him with a problem despite the nine Riders per team rule at the time team sky was very much behind Bradley wiggin’s Ambitions of winning the tour to France overall and they were right to back him he did win but it meant that cavendish’s lead out train was lacking compared to previous years despite that he did take three stage wins including his fourth consecutive win on the Sham to make that even more special it was Wiggins in his yellow Jersey leading out Cavendish in his Rainbow Band hard to imagine that scenario ever happening again despite the success there he moved teams in 2013 for his first stint at quickstep it was second most prolific season in terms of win rates 19 in total including five at the jro where he won the points JY for the first time and took his 100th career win two stages ensued at the tour that year but one of the boxes that cavish still had left to tick by 2014 was the tour to France yellow Jersey a Sprint stage into Harriet in the UK on stage one that year was the perfect opportunity but a crash in the finale denied him that dream and took him out of the race a solitary stage win at the tour in 2015 had left some people questioning whether the Cavendish era was over but he balanced back in the most emphatic style riding for team Dimension data in 2016 Cavendish started the tour that year as an underdog in the Sprint For the First Time The emergence of German Powerhouse Marcel K was seen by many as a Changing of the Guard but Cavendish had other ideas not only did he add a further four stage wins to his tally That season he also won the opening stage to put himself into the yellow jersey for the only time in his career nobody though could have foreseen that that would be his last Taste of tour success for five long years in a three-year period from 2018 Cavendish didn’t win a single race he struggled with his form and with his own mental health and at the end of 2020 he gave a tearful interview in which he admitted he was staring down the barrel of retirement he could have retired he was already the most successful Sprinter of all time but this is markk Cavendish such was his determination to win and to prove his doubt is wrong he signed with quick step for the minimum wage nobody thought he’d get back to his best and even four stage wins at the tour of turkey in 2021 left us with as many questions as it answered were it not for an injury to his then teammate Sam Bennett Cavendish may never have ridden a tour to France again as it was though he had a last minute call up and so he arrived in for the Grande par that year with everything to win and nothing to lose it didn’t take long for Cavendish to silence the doubters he won on stage four and then again on stages six and 10 a fourth win three days after that took his career tally of tour wins to 34 level with the great Eddie MKS his then manager Patrick levra suggested he should retire on the spot if he won again on the Sham he didn’t and despite also winning the Green Jersey for the second time that year leev didn’t select him to ride the race again The Following Season staring retirement in the face yet again Cavendish found another believer in Alexander vinarov team manager at aana Kazakhstan during the jro that year in 20123 in what he won the final stage kavish announced it would be his last as a pro One Last Tour to France then one last opportunity to take the stage win record outright and he came very close he was pipped to the line by a dominant yasper Phillipson on stage seven into Bordeaux but it was a result that kept the dream alive not for long though 24 hours later he was stretched off in an ambulance having broken his collar bone in what was quite a silly mid-stage crash the months that insued saw no end of speculation was that really his last tour or would he give it one last try everybody hoped he would none of us wanted our final memory of him to be in an ambulance after much deliberation with his family Cavendish decided to continue one final strive for 35 a win at the Colombia tour at the start of the Year gave hope another in Hungary just weeks before the tour gave more but as we all know the tour of Hungary is not the Tour of France so the doubts persisted in true Mark Cavendish style he has now put those doubts to rest again and perhaps for one final time his win on stage five was nothing short of miraculous a glimpse back into the Heyday of Mark Cavendish where every decision made at over 60 km per hour was the right one where nobody could match him when he kicked to the line by the time you watch this video he may well have won a 36th or maybe even more than that but it doesn’t matter he’s put that record to bed he’s underlined his status as the best Sprinter of all time and he can now retire on top after 18 years at the top he’s just put the cherry on the icing of his own massive cake and he can eat that cake without guilt when he hangs up his wheels shapo Sir Mark Cavendish