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British rider Cavendish takes 29th Tour stage victory

Xinhua, July 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Mark Cavendish came out the second-placed rider of all time for Tour de France stage victories with his 29th win on the sixth stage from Arpajon-sur-Cere to Montauban on Thursday.

He thus surpassed five-times Tour winner Bernard Hinault after having taken the first, third and sixth stage wins of the race this year, with just five behind Eddymerckmx' s record of 34.

The 31-year-old Briton outsprinted Germany' s Marcel Kittel and fellow compatriot Daniel McLay to conquer the 190.5km ride in 4 hours 43 minutes and 48 seconds, while Greg van Avermaet finished the 28th on the sixth stage at just four seconds but retained the leader' s yellow jersey.

Cavendish, who also took the sprinter' s green jersey with the victory, sat on the wheel of Etixx-QuickStep' s Kittel as they came into Montauban, and launched himself forward in the final 200 meters.

Finishing fastest of all was Fortuneo-Vital Concept' s McLay but the 24-year-old ran out of road as Team Dimension Data' s Cavendish punched the air for the third time this week.

"Oh my god, that was terrifying," said Cavendish, who won six stages in 2009 and five each in 2010 and 2011. "That was like the old days, wheel surfing. I was a little too far back going into that so it was just carnage in the final. I wanted Kittel' s wheel and I was fighting for it.

"I knew it would be the right thing to go early because it was slightly downhill, I put the bigger gear on again but I maxed out and should have put a bigger gear on. I held on and held Kittel off, did to him what he' s done to me over the last three years," he added.

A total of 198 riders started on Thursday with the same sum to have finished, the first time in history that not a single cyclist dropped before the seventh stage.

On Friday, the Tour will come into the first mountain stage entering the Pyrenees, a 162.5km ride from L' Isle-Jourdan to Lac de Payolle. Endit