Mark Cavendish revived on day of drama

Saint-Amand-Montrond, France: Mark Cavendish’s winning smile was back, wider than the Champs-Elysees, and Chris Froome appeared for the first time a pale picture of dismay after a bewilderingly thrilling stage witnessed dramatically contrasting fortunes for Britain’s two Tour de France stars. After reading his own racing obituaries over breakfast, with the French sports bible L’Equipe insisting “Cavendish reigns no longer”, how typical that the Manxman should rebound here bang in France’s heartland with a glorious victory in Saint-Amand-Montrond which now makes him the equal-third most prolific stage winner in 100 Tours.

Yet it was the wholly unexpected setback that hit Froome on a day that was supposed to be a dull 173km flatlands meander from Tours, giving the cameras a chance to linger on lovely chateaux, followed by a bunch sprint to wake everyone up at the end. Instead, it turned into crosswind chaos and a fine old mess for Sky as an attack from Alberto Contador’s Saxo-Tinkoff team, taking advantage of the crosswinds 30km from home, eventually cost their leader 57sec of his overnight 3min 25sec advantage. Contador just could not believe it. You could see the flicker of anxiety in Froome’s face.

“I’m just happy I still have an advantage of two minutes,” he said before admitting that Sky really had been “weakened” by Edvald Boasson Hagen’s abandonment on Thursday. On a day when a 20km crosswind played havoc after the peloton had travelled less than 60km and was split into three groups by the enterprising efforts of Cavendish’s Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammates, there was more drama when Alejandro

Valverde, the man Froome had identified as his main rival, became waylaid by a puncture and ended up losing almost 10 minutes. The Spaniard had evidently hoped a gentleman’s agreement would allow him to ease his way back. Instead, the Belkin team kept pushing and, instead of Valverde, it is now their Dutchman Bauke Mollema who lies second, 2:28 down on Froome.

“I hope no team would do that to me if I had a mechanical,” noted Froome, distinctly unimpressed. When Contador and co improvised, understanding the perfect moment to attack and let the crosswinds stifle any pursuit, Froome hesitated fatally. A 15-strong group, including Cavendish, Mollema and Peter Sagan, sped away.

It was a brilliant move, initiated, ironically, by Sky’s former road captain and now Contador’s lieutenant, Mick Rogers. Froome looked bewildered as, sitting up in the saddle, he glanced vainly around to see who was going to lead the response. Had inexperience, next to Contador’s street wisdom, cost him?

Crucially, there was no Boasson Hagen to help and although four Sky men desperately tried to haul back the deficit, eventually they had to back off with 10km left. Could Froome, who came home without a minder in sight, himself have led the chase? “Personally, I think there’ll be more time won and lost on a stage like Ventoux, than at the end of this stage,” he responded, adopting his bravest face.

“It looked simple on paper but that wasn’t the case. It was just another reminder that we have to be on our toes at all times.” Cavendish was on his toes, all right. In the morning in Tours, he had sounded almost wistful about how, after Marcel Kittel had overpowered him to win his third stage in Tours, perhaps he had met his match in the big German. L’Equipe thinks so, identifying him as the Manxman’s “bete noire” and “successeur”.

“Maybe I am just getting old,” he had mused. “It’s the cycle of life. There’s always someone comes along. There were guys dominating the sprints when I came along and I took over from them. Someone else is going to take over and that’ll be happening through history.” Ah, but history can wait. There was no time for violins yesterday as Cavendish held on to the belting pace set by OPQS designed to burn off Kittel. It worked perfectly. Cavendish then almost missed the break when Contador’s mob sped away but he fought back to the group with grim determination.

After that, there could only be one winner. Sagan may still be insurmountable as the green jersey wearer, but in a two-man sprint he is no

Kittel and, once a tricky hairpin and roundabout on the run-in had been negotiated, Cavendish demolished the Slovakian’s challenge with ease. His 25th triumph puts him third all-time alongside Andre Leducq, a two-time French Tour winner in the 1930s. Knowing now that only Bernard Hinault (28 wins) and Eddy Merckx (34) are ahead of him seems to have taken years off Cavendish. The man who in the morning was wondering if he was too old was now, after effectively enjoying a 110km lead-out to one of his most remarkable wins, booming: “I want to come here and continue to be successful every single year.”

Though life has been hard for him these past few days, what an unreal achievement it is to have won at least two stages in each of the last six Tours. “I have incredible respect for this race, more than you can imagine. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes sometimes,” he said.

“I could tell you a story about all my 25 wins here and all of them feature the story of an incredible bunch of guys.” But not many featured a story as unlikely as this. Cavendish is not finished yet either. As we know, he’ll always have Paris.