Cavendish sprints to another victory on stage 6 of the Tour de France
Cavendish sprints to another victory on stage 6 of the Tour de France
Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) sprinted to his 32nd Tour de France stage win on Thursday’s stage 6, winning in Châteauroux for the third time in his career.
The peloton swept up Roger Kluge (Lotto Soudal) and Greg Van Avermaet (AG2R Citroën) inside the last 3 km to set up the final kick, with Deceuninck-QuickStep hitting the front to lead the pack into the last kilometer.
With Deceuninck leading the way on the lefthand side of the road, race leader Mathieu van der Poel then pulled the Alpecin-Fenix squad up on the right. Both trains then merged, with Tim Merlier at the front of the pack and with Jasper Philipsen just behind, and then Cavendish jumped onto Philipsen’s wheel.
Cavendish launched to the right of Philipsen and Merlier with around 150 meters to go, and then Philipsen jumped to the left of Merlier, but he could not match the speed of Cavendish, who held on to take the victory. Philipsen settled for second with Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic) taking third on the day.
The win puts Cavendish within two victories of tying Eddy Merckx’s all-time record for stage wins at the Tour de France.
Tour de France (2.UWT) Tours → Châteauroux
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
CAVENDISH Mark
SCHELLING Ide
POGAČAR Tadej
Team Jumbo-Visma