There was no repeat Tour de France sprint win for Mark Cavendish, with the Manxman and his Astana-Qazaqstan team failing to cut the mustard in Dijon.
Astana-Qazaqstan worked hard to keep Cavendish up front during the ever-faster run-in to the city, but their lead-out became trapped in the peloton with two kilometres to go at a vital pinch point in the road before a chicane and turn right into the long finishing straight.
Cavendish fought to move up in the final of the stage 6 sprint but was unable to find a way through. He appeared to ease up in defeat and let his lead-out man, Cees Bol, fight for a placing. Cavendish was 19th, with the Dutchman 14th.
Cavendish could only watch on as Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) was mobbed by the television crews and photographs beyond the finish line, just like he was on Wednesday. Cavendish sportingly offered Groenewegen a hand touch of congratulations as they crossed paths.
“The boys were really good today, the confidence they showed the whole day, the grit they showed all day. I’m disappointed, but we’ll try again,” Cavendish explained at the Astana Qazaqstan bus, analysing the sprint with his usual sharp eye for detail and mistakes.
“We were a little in the middle in the last couple of kilometres, which is not really where you want to be coming into that final roundabout.
“If you are, you need to back off so you carry the momentum even if you lose a couple of positions. Everyone went on the front wheel, and Michael followed them. I lost the momentum and it lost me positions. I could see I could go along the barriers and risk to come from so far back in the final. But it’s a big risk with probably no reward, maybe a top 10.”
Cavendish was not so understanding during the stage when he suffered a mechanical problem, was hampered by a television motorbike and then briefly drafted behind his team car to return to the peloton. He was fined 200 Swiss francs, docked 15 UCI ranking points, 10 points for the green jersey competition and 40 seconds in the general classification.
“I had a mechanical problem; my chain wrapped and locked under my bottom bracket,” Cavendish told Peacock, the US Tour de France broadcaster.
“I started to panic when the TV camera came up. He goes in the middle of the road and stops the convoy coming. That puts you out the back.
“A TV camera is there to capture images and not to influence the race, and it’s the second time this motorbike has done it. That’s when you start to panic when an outside control is influencing the race. It’s something you can’t prepare for.”
Cavendish kept a low profile at the start of the stage in Mâcon but was praised and celebrated for his record-breaking 35th victory in the peloton during the stage.
“It was a bit weird, last night was strange. I was far from bouncy, I was a little in shock. We were all super happy, but it was a sense of ‘what now?’ he admitted.
“Geraint Thomas kept saying, ‘Why are you starting today?’ But we’re here as a team, we’ve come here to try and win. 35 is just a number people use.
“We try to win whenever we can. It’s obvious now, after 15 Tours de France, the respect I show this race. It’s the Tour de France. You try to win, you try to do whatever you can, and you show the Tour the respect it deserves.
“It was really special during the stage, from guys young to old. The old guys said, ‘You give us hope we can still do it’ – guys like [Primož] Roglič.
“Tom Pidcock came up and told me he was nine or so when I won my first stage. I was very humbled to be in the peloton today, with the amount of people that seemed genuinely happy. It was very emotional.”
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