After winning the 35th stage of his career in Saint-Vulbas, eastern France, the British rider achieved the historic milestone.
Shortly after the victory, the 39-year-old racer from Astana, Qazaqstan, remarked, “I’m in a bit of disbelief.”
“Astana took a significant risk this year to ensure that we would finish the Tour de France.”
It’s a significant risk to come here and, you know, win at least one stage.
“You have to go all in and, yeah, we’ve done it.”
Cavendish was quite disappointed after injuring his collar bone and withdrawing from the Tour de France last year, which he had declared would be his final one.
His triumph came just two days after he was unable to compete in stage three due to a late crash in Turin, and just four days after he labored in the intense heat of a demanding opening stage out of Florence, vomiting on the bike in alarming scenes.
The rider took home four Tour stage victories in 2008, his first, and by 2011, he had achieved 20.
However, his four stage wins in 2021 stood as one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history. These were his first Tour wins in five years, following a period of illness and injury that led to a diagnosis of depression.
