Team Dimension Data will be looking for their sixth win on the Tour de France on Mandela Day, Mark Cavendish, the team’s star sprinter confirmed after winning a fifth stage for the team and a fourth for himself in the 14th stage on Saturday.
Cavendish outsprinted Norwegian Alexander Kristoff and world champion Peter Sagan, who were second and third respectively, on a tricky final kick into Villars-les-Dombes. It has been five years since Cavendish won five stages in a Tour. This was his 30th Tour stage win in total. He would like to get closer to the record of Eddy Merckx, who has 34.
“There are two more sprint opportunities I think. (Today) in Berne,” Cavendish said.
“It’s not an easy sprint but it’s a sprint and it’s on Nelson Mandela day so it’s a big for the team. We’ve got a rest day and we’ve got four days before Paris, so I may as well try to get there. I said that I’m not going to try and put myself over the edge or if I’m on my hands knees I have stop, I can’t kill myself before the Olympics. But I feel in good shape, there’s good morale so I’ll carry on.”
Cavendish would like a win on the Champs Elysees, where he has won before. It is unlikely he will be able to wrest the green jersey off the shoulders off Sagan before Paris. The race referees had a look at the final sprint into Villars-les-Dombes on Saturday after Marcel Kittel, the German, complained and gestured at Cavendish after the two had come close together, almost touching in the sprint.
“I didn’t see it (Kittel waving his fist in anger). I was in front of him,” said Cavendish. “The first I knew about it was when I was waiting to do my flash interview and they were just taking a while… I saw it I think there is a coming together. I think if you look it’s him that comes off the barriers more, it’s him more than anything. We didn’t have time to talk. He hit me on the back, but I thought he was just saying well done.”
Cavendish’s sprint was a clever move on his part as he found Kittel’s wheel and sat on it. Kittel went with 250m to go, earlier than he may have wanted to, and the Team Dimension Data read his move perfectly.
“You refresh your racing nous. When you ride the track you need to be patient, assess the situation and I’ve been more patient in this Tour. I knew Marcel would have to be on the front early, because he had only four lead-out men left at two kilometres to go, he was on the front too long, so what I had to do was wait for him to lose his peak speed and then jump around him.”
Today could be a celebration for Madiba at the Tour, as it was last year when Steve Cummings won for MTN-Qhubeka. There is a slight climb at the end of today’s stage, so it is likely Edvald Boasson Hagen may be in the mix for Dimension Data against Sagan. But, then again, few predicted Cavendish would be in the form he is in. Few predicted a South African team would have five victories to brag about.