Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) fell just short of notching up a record 35th Tour de France stage win when he was pipped to victory by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the bunch sprint in Bordeaux on stage 7.
The Manxman hit the front inside the final 100m, but he was overhauled by Philipsen, who came past to claim his third stage win of the Tour, while Cavendish had to settle for second place.
A disappointed Cavendish explained afterwards that he had been hampered by a problem with his gears during the sprint, with his chain jumping between the 11 and 12 sprockets.
“I jumped when I wanted to but unfortunately, I had a problem with my gears when I was sprinting,” Cavendish said afterwards. “It went from the 11 to the 12, and I had to sit down to get back to the 11. I stood up and it went back to the 12, so I’m pretty devastated actually. The boys did a good job. It was one of those situations where it’s not meant to be.”
Although Cavendish appeared destined to break the record he shares with Eddy Merckx when he hit the front in the closing metres, he was all but resigned to his fate once his mechanical issue had manifested itself.
“By 30 or 40 metres to go, I’d already had to sit down and stand up again, my gears were jumping – 11, 12, 11, 12,” Cavendish said. “It’s not belief then, it’s hope. It is what it is, but we’ll try again.”
Cavendish, who placed 6th and 5th in bunch sprints earlier in the week, came from a long way back to launch his sprint here, and he paid tribute to the work of teammate Cees Bol in the finale. The Dutchman had been set to join the doomed B&B Hotels team with Cavendish in the winter and he followed the Manxman to Astana.
“He was like an assassin, he just does what he needed to do,” Cavendish said. “Cees is pretty amazing, he was the leading me up. If he has to start work earlier than the actual lead-out to get me in position, then he’ll do that. He did a perfect move to get me in the right wheels for the last k, and then it was just a case of timing when I jumped.”
Mathieu van der Poel again provided a powerful lead-out for Philipsen in the finale in Bordeaux and the green jersey delivered another rasping sprint. Cavendish wondered if Philipsen’s sprinting line might be queried by rival teams while admitting that the manoeuvre had not hindered his own effort.
“I’d imagine there might be a couple of teams putting protests in against Philipsen today anyway, but he didn’t impede…
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