MARK CAVENDISH has thrown up on stage one of the Tour de France.
The Veteran sprinter is taking one last crack at breaking the record for the most stage wins, but things have got off to a terrible start for the Brit.
— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) June 29, 2024
| Het gaat niet goed met Mark Cavendish. Zelfs het halen van de tijdslimiet lijkt een flinke opgave voor de sprinter..
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Cavendish, 39, looks to be struggling already as the heat gets to the 34-time stage winner during stage one from Florence to Rimini.
The 199.2km ride is filled with hills, an enemy of sprinters like Cavendish.
In fact it’s been touted as one of the hardest opening stages in tour history.
And the mountains are being coupled with heats of around 30 degrees Celsius – causing Cav to fall significantly behind the peloton.
The Astana Qazaqstan rider was struggling so much that cameras caught him leaning over his handlebars to spit out a mouthful of vomit.
While his teammates were also seen dumping water over him multiple times in an effort to cool down.
Fans watching on from home were concerned about what they were seeing.
On social media, one wrote: “The gap is growing now for Mark Cavendish. I fear the worst. But his health needs to come first before the race.”
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While another added: “It’s so sad to see Cavendish in this state.”
And a third commented: “Cavendish has shown buckets loads of resilience all of his career, he really needs to dig deep now.”
The heat saw Cavendish and his Astana teammates fall some FIVE AND A HALF MINUTES behind the peloton with 114km to go, after dropping back during the first climb of the day.
While he was over nine minutes behind the leaders at the same point.
Cavendish can break the record for the most Tour de France stage wins (35), which he currently shares with cycling icon Eddy Merckx, with one more stage victory this year.
And although that would be likely to come in a flat sprinting stage, should he miss the time cut he won’t have a chance to win that title at a later stage at all.
Cavendish, handed a knighthood earlier this month, admitted that he was nervous ahead of this year’s tour.
Speaking to Eurosport, he said: “I’m a little nervous, but I am always nervous at the start of the tour.”
Adding: “It’s not going to be easy, but we should get through today and then we’re on the roads.”
There’s now a real possibility that Cavendish doesn’t make it through today and is forced out of the tour before it even reaches France.
But should that happen he isn’t concerned about damaging his legacy by not taking the stage win record for his own.
He told Rouleur: “At this race, I don’t have anything to lose, it’s not like playing roulette. If I don’t win here, I won’t lose 34 stage wins.
“I own the most stage wins of the Tour de France alongside the great Eddy Merckx. How many more doesn’t matter.”
Adding: “We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think it was possible.
“Our job is to try and win. Realistically, there are five or six chances.
“It’s hard and it’s up and down, but we come here and we have everything in place that we can do it. So we’ll try.”
