British rider Mark Cavendish continued his remarkable run at the Tour de France as he won his third stage in the 2021 race on Tuesday.
The Deceuninck-Quick Step rider is now one short of Belgian great Eddy Merckx's all-time record of 34 stage wins.
At the end of a flat run from Albertville to Valence, Cavendish, 36, edged Jasper Philipsen to the line to also keep a firm grip on the sprint points green jersey.
For UAE Team Emirates, defending champion Tadej Pogacar maintained his overall lead and retained the yellow jersey.
Slovenia rider Pogacar leads his next challenger Ben O'Connor of AG2R-Citroen by two minutes and one second. Pogacar played it safe in the leading peloton in a nervy finale in the Rhone valley.
It is a stunning turnaround for veteran rider Cavendish after a barren five-year spell on the Tour. Cavendish took full advantage of a superb lead-out by his Deceuninck-Quick Step teammates to win ahead of the Belgian pair of Wout Van Aert of Jumbo-Visma and Alpecin-Fenix’s Philipsen in the 190.7km flat route.
“It was an old-school, run-of-the-mill, like you read in the cycling magazines, textbook lead-out,” Cavendish said after the race. “Just getting the lads on the front, pull as fast as they can so no one can come past you.
“We knew this finish, I didn't make it the last time we came here in 2015, I got dropped, but we studied it and we knew if we took that last corner wide, we could keep the speed up.
“It actually split in the wind. We didn't try to split it, we were confident we had the team for the sprint, but again I'm just humbled.”
The stage win also extended Cavendish’s lead in the green jersey for the intermediate sprint ahead of Sonny Colbrelli and Michale Matthews.
“I don’t go for the green jersey, I go for stages and hope the green jersey comes from that,” Cavendish added.
“I always try to pick up points but I’m not going to put myself over the limit to do it. They’ve gotta try something, it’s bike racing, but I feel like they’ve burnt their matches doing that
“My team stayed round me and got me over it. I just needed to get over that climb and I knew I’d be safe for the sprint.”
The top five in the general classification remained unchanged with Pogacar holding on to his overnight lead from Stage 9 winner O’Connor and Rigoberto Uran.
“Yeah, I didn't get too involved today, I need to get ready to go full-gas on Mont Ventoux,” said the overall leader.
“There's no point me risking everything going for a stage win. I crashed the first day on the Tour and I've crashed six times this year, so that's my main stress on these flat stages, keeping out of trouble.”
