Johannesburg – Team Dimension Data’s Mark Cavendish will wear the yellow jersey as the leader of the Tour de France today after winning the first stage on Utah Beach yesterday. He dedicated his win to Africa.
Cavendish, riding for a South African team with South African sponsors and three African riders, powered around world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and German Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) to take the yellow jersey for the first time in his 10th Tour start.
“There’s no more iconic sight than the yellow jersey,” said Cavendish after winning his 27th stage at the Tour. To get the recognition for our sponsors and for the Qhubeka charity. I do this for my team, I do this for the continent of Africa, and I do it to try and get 5000 kids on bicycles (for Qhubeka). I’m so happy with that.”
Cavendish was a surprise signing near the end of last year for the Dimension Data. Some said he was past his best, but he showed yesterday that he has some distance still to ride.
“It’s phenomenal, it really is phenomenal. It’s my third opportunity (at winning yellow), and it’s the third one without bad luck. I don’t really know what to say. It was a big goal. We came here with the aim of doing it. The team had the polka dot jersey for a few days last year and we wanted this.”
He was reminded that it was the first time he had beaten Kittel, who was second with Sagan third, in a straight-up sprint and gave a typical Cavendish shrug.
“Regardless of who is there, the Tour de France is the Tour de France. To win a stage is an honour and not an easy thing.”
Cavendish had tried to play down what getting the yellow jersey would mean to him in the build-up to the Tour this week. It was just another stage, he said, adding that he was just going for the win. It was his job to win stages. When he crossed the line, winner of the stage and the wearer of the yellow jersey, he hugged Mark Renshaw, his long-time lieutenant and the final man in his lead-out train, and laughed loudly and heartedly.
Doug Ryder, the team principal, was one of the first to the pair as they celebrated. Their laughter and tears said so much more.
Later, he and many of the other riders went down to Utah Beach to mark those who had passed on D-Day here during World War II.
“To pull on this jersey is an honour. It’s going to be a special, special day tomorrow. And to do it here, at Utah Beach, remembering not just the soldiers who died on D-Day, but all the people that have died fighting for our freedom in the modern world. It’s to honour all of them.”
There was some bad news for the team after Edvald Boasson Hagen, the team’s Norwegian champion, was caught up in a crash in the final straight and went down hard.
– The Sunday Independent